What's your current work-in-progress?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Nicole --

It took me ten minutes to figure out how to actually answer questions using this feature... ah, the learning curve. Again. Succeeded, though, so there.

Anyway, first question, cool! The answer is less cool, I'm afraid. I have nothing new in the publishing pipeline at this time. In general, I find my work-in-progress to be too fragile to discuss during its early stages except with my old trusted Beta readers. Also, talking about things that are only in the idea stage tends to generate reader expectations that one risks disappointing. On the bright side, if I do start talking about something, you probably have a pretty good chance of actually seeing it someday.

The next thing up in the career-maintenance work queue (which goes on independently of anything new) will probably be helping prepare an edition of Sidelines: Talks and Essays for print-on-demand, but first we have to finish up The Spirit Ring, ditto.

Ta, L.
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What books are you reading for pleasure lately?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm reviewing most of the books I've read lately here on Goodreads, because, why not. GR makes it pretty easy. I think you can look up my reviews in my "My Books" section, or find them somewhere on my profile page. (It may take some scrolling.) I've picked up so many helpful reading tips from internet reviews, it seems like a good thing to pay it back, or forward as the case may be.

My reading has slowed down lately, due to some retinal issues in my left eye that make lines of print look somewhat like captchas. :( I can't read for as long as I used to at a stretch till I find myself reading with my left eye closed, which is generally my signal to put the book down and go do something else for a while.

Ta, L.
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Thank You for your marvelous work. Can't wait for your next book. It's very interesting to know which one of your novels is your favorite??
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, each book had something special about it that made it worth the writing to me. So it's an apples-vs.-oranges problem. That said, Memory, A Civil Campaign, and The Curse of Chalion are all right up there. (And Paladin of Souls, and... you see the problem.)

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I've been a fan of all your books from the moment I started reading them. I've been anxiously waiting for any news about your next project. Can you share something about it with us? And do you plan to return someday to the Chalion universe?? Thanks!! :) Rodrigo
Lois McMaster Bujold Hm, this is looking like the Frequently Asked Question, here. I don't have any news about a next project at this time. A return to Chalion is not ruled out, but I don't have anything live going forward at present.

Ta, L.
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Do you have an address that fans can send mail to? Do you like that kind of thing?
Lois McMaster Bujold This Goodreads site has a private message system, which I believe members can use for such purposes.

I prefer e-mail to snail mail -- it's much easier to answer.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, is there a possible future for a next Miles Vorkosigan book?
Lois McMaster Bujold Wow, of the dozen or so questions I just found waiting for me on this feature (I should perhaps check it more often), this one was about half of them. Nothing is absolutely ruled out, but I don't have anything in progress at this time.

Ta, L.
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Who is your favorite character to write? What is it that makes them stand out for you as an author?
Lois McMaster Bujold I find I like best working with a character who has complicated and interesting thoughts, an interior landscape worth spending time in. It is increasingly the same case for my chosen reading, too -- if I'm going to be spending hours -- or, in the case of a book I'm writing, months -- in this other headspace, I want it to be a congenial one. This seems to work for both fiction and nonfiction, interestingly. This quality is also sometimes dubbed "voice", but I think there's far more to it than just style. A quite complex headspace can be expressed in plain language, but witty delivery is very much a bonus. A character who offers dry wit and humor that is sharp without being cruel along with his or her insights is a special treat.

Ta, L.
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Can we look forward to more Miles in the near future or do you prefer to work on different things?
Lois McMaster Bujold The frequently answered question of the day, I see, with slight variations. Nothing in the near future, no. Just at present I appear to want to work on nothing whatsoever, but presumably I will get through the novelty of semi-retirement in due course, or get bored, or a neuron will fire. Breath-holding contraindicated.

Ta, L.
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Hello! This is such a neat concept / I'm just wondering if you could be any one of your own characters who would you pick and why?
Lois McMaster Bujold I wouldn't want to be any of my characters. They have terrible things happen to them, not to mention to the people around them. I prefer a much more peaceful existence.

Ta, L.
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Hi there, I was wondering: do you have a "feel-good" book? A book you read when you feel down, a book which always make you smile? A book that gives you hope? Thanks for answering and I hope you have a good turnover of the year! And many many thanks for the books you gave us readers, they brighten the landscape :) Cheers, Edith
Lois McMaster Bujold Oddly, I was thinking about this earlier today, when contemplating my bookshelves and their remaining space. (I currently have space on my shelves due to a recent drastic culling.) The answer to this question seems pretty much identical with a list of my keepers, which tend to run by author. In no particular order, Georgette Heyer, Jennifer Crusie, Megan Whalen Turner, Terry Pratchett, Ben Aaronovitch, the triple-headed Jayne Anne Krentz (she has two other names she writes under.)

It's a rare and happy event when a new writer is added to that stable. I've recently become a fan of science writer Nick Lane, although his are more "feel-smart" books than "feel-good" books.

Ta, L.
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So I am looking for a new author (I've read all of your books, so worry not). What authors influenced you within the science fiction genre? Any authors you would particularly recommend (even if they didn't influence you directly)?
Lois McMaster Bujold I am woefully behind on newer authors.

Of the older authors I read Back When, one standout is Cordwainer Smith. I suspect an unusually high percentage of his stuff may have aged well. Other names to try -- and I haven't reread enough of them lately to be sure about that aging-well/badly issue -- might be Randall Garrett, Poul Anderson, Eric Frank Russell, Zenna Henderson, Roger Zelazny, Daniel Keyes (only one book -- Flowers for Algernon, but with a book like that you only need one), James H. Schmitz and Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Ta, L.
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Do you listen to audiobooks? and if you do or don't why?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, I don't. I don't have a lot of physical activities -- driving, chores, handwork -- that invite hands-free listening, I am (now) part-deaf in one ear, I find oral presentations slow compared to reading, and most of all, I am a very visual processor with a very visual memory. All of that works against listening. Although if I were to acquire some hands-busy-brain-free routine task, that could change. (I once had a friend who used to work at a particularly stultifying data entry job while listening to audiobooks, which I found boggling.)

With my own books, it is pretty much impossible for any narrator to exactly replicate the cadences and intonations I have in my own mind, so that adds an extra level of dissonance.

Ta, L.
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Psst... more Cazaril, PLEASE?!? Most amazing and endearing character I've found in literature so far, MUST HAVE MORE!! Prequel? When he was captured and incarcerated?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, a Caz prequel would be barred from a happy ending, pretty much. And a Caz sequel would be, inevitably, a lesser story than the one already told.

One of the things I'd wanted from the Chalion series, insofar as it has developed, was to get away from its being stuck on one set of characters in one time and place. I sort of want it to be able to shift around to different times and countries and new people, and perhaps different thematic and theological concerns. This runs rather counter to the usual notions of series, which work to attach the readers to particular characters. I don't know when or if I'll ever follow this scheme up, or out.

Ta, L.
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I realize you're taking a well-deserved rest. Lord knows you deserve it. But is there any chance the last two Chalion books will ever get written?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is promised, nothing is permanently ruled out. (And nothing is in the pipeline.) But I don't foresee anything happening with Chalion soon.

I have finally bit the bullet and switched from "rest" to "exercise", in a carefully supervised manner. (The Y, it turns out, will rent you a trainer for a reasonable sum.) But that will take some time to pay off.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, Have you considered teaching? Your speeches teach much. I'd bet you'd be terrific at teaching what you know
Lois McMaster Bujold
I did a few workshops early in my career, but in general I find teaching pretty exhausting, so I duck those gigs now. The thing about teaching is that one needs to be able to cover rather more than what one knows, according to the needs of the pupil.

As far as writing teaching goes, I usually direct people on to Pat Wrede's blog, http://pcwrede.com/blog/ , or her collected-posts book Wrede on Writing. She does this sort of thing so very well.

Ta, L.
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Hi! What are some of your favorite anime films or TV series? Did you ever consider adapting your work for animation? And last, do you play video games? Cheers!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, I have a bunch of fave anime. Paprika is probably my favorite feature, though of course I also like most of the Studio Ghibli offerings. Series include but are not limited to Mushi-Shi, Otogi Zoshi, The GokuSen, Wallflower, Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi, Antique Bakery, Junjo Romantica, Mirage of Blaze, Shonen Onmyoji... As a general rule I have no use for giant fighting robots in any form, fighting samurai (Samurai Champloo excepted), ultra-violence, grimdark, or horror, though sufficiently Japanese folklore horror sometimes gets a pass.

Since I am not an anime producer, adapting my work is not up to me -- media adaptations are a buyer's market. But I have long thought Falling Free would be good in that medium.

No video games. I sampled Dragon Warrior and a few others back in the 80s, and quickly realized that if I got any further into this, my kids would die, my house would burn down, and my nascent career would go down the toilet. So I have missed the train on gaming.

Ta, L.
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Is there any plan for more Chalion books? Paladin of Souls is one of my all time favorite books, and all of them have a special place in my heart and bookshelf.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answered (and discussed) here:

https://www.goodreads.com/questions/2...

You are not alone, it appears!

Ta, L.
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You have introduced many side characters that might be worth stories of their own. I am thinking of Miles' step son and Jin & Mina (from Cyroburn). Any chance you might doe something about them or the further adventures of Ivan Vorpatril? I think any of those could give a different perspective on Barrayar.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out, but at present those ideas don't spark anything for me.

Readers often ask for more of the same, but I think in many cases that's not what they mean; what they are really saying is, "Give me a story that will make me feel the way that one did!" Which may actually be quite a different thing, but is much harder to articulate.

(Or, for all those fractal follow-ups, there's always Fanficwoman. To the rescue!)

Ta, L.
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How do your family and friends relate to you and your writing? I imagine they would enjoy a special understanding of your thoughts, feelings, and values from reading your work. For instance, my wife and I have both completed the Vorkosigan saga and I've taken to quoting to her, apropos of family matters, "all true wealth is biological", which benefits from what we've both experienced in the novels.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, family is difficult. My parents passed away years ago, my father when my career was only starting. From one comment he made, I gathered that my adult content was a bit dismaying to him; I think that somewhere in his head, I was still twelve. My mother was not a F&SF reader, so while the writing part seemed sort of OK to her, the genre was not something to which she related. "If you want to write, why not try writing for the local paper?" she once inquired, when I was bemoaning my early lack of progress. Leaving aside the rural benightedness of The Marion Star, the noncomprehension of this question seemed profound.

Only one of my brothers is a reader -- he does like my stuff, and I think reading it has brought me into focus as a human being for him, rather than a vague fuzzball labeled "little sister". I gather he found this rather unexpected. (He loved The Curse of Chalion.)

My kids, well, my children are rather opaque to me. Cordelia's apparent maternal telepathy is the most wish-fulfillment part of the character, from my point of view. My daughter has read at least some of my work, and we relate to each other as adults nowadays, or at least I think we do. My son has never, as far as I know, read any of my fiction. Not sure what to make of that. (I wish he would, for just the reasons you name above, but I can hardly make my books required reading.)

My friends pretty much consist of folks who like my stuff, because there is, after all, a selection process at work there.

Ta, L.
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Ms. Bujold! I'm so glad you answer questions! My question is about the Chalion series. I really love the way you approached the question of deity. Especially _Paladin of Souls_, which made me tear up, even on the re-read. What informed your attitude toward celestial beings?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't have any one source for that. It was more of a lifetime accumulation of reading of all sorts, from C.S. Lewis through The Confessions of St. Augustine to a smattering of mystics from other religions to biographies of saints (Ignatius Loyola was fascinating) to accounts of 19th C. leper colonies. Blenderize that with my biology and science education, or at least pop science education, that gave me a distaste for dualism, and strange things happen.

(Note that the gods of Chalion cannot really be called celestial, as they are equally immanent at all points.)

Ta, L.
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I find that I am as curious as Duv Galeni about the crates of documents found in the bunker under Cockroach Central. Any chance that there would be a "Tales from the Ninth Satrapy" collection? -- Perhaps a story about Prince Xav and his Betan wife or a chance to get in the head of a young Piotyr? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am not at present in the mood for war stories, and I haven't done any short work for decades, so probably not.

It seems good that the books "run off the sides of the page" in all directions for readers, though. It suggests that the tales are engaging people's minds and imaginations, which is, after all, their job.

Ta, L.
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Any chance of a historical fiction project? Have you ever read Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series, Stephenson's Baroque Cycle or Brim's Uplift series? As do yours, these authors’ heroes embrace their era’s complexities. Did you read Pilgrim's Progress? Lastly, thank you for having an entomologist in your books. They are fine and unique people who live among us (and with us) too often unappreciated.
Lois McMaster Bujold
In order: probably not, no, no, and no, and yes.

Glad you like Enrique! You may be pleased to know that once he gets over his grad student fecklessness, he ages very well. Martya is pleased.

Ta, L.
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What helps with figuring out how to tell a type of story that isn't told often? For example, when you were working on the Sharing Knife books and realized you had set up demographic and long-term problems that your characters would tackle in books 3 and 4, what helped you come to grips with how to do it? How did you bridge the gap between wanting to write a story with an unusual shape and actually doing it?
Lois McMaster Bujold The short answer is whining, lots of whining, but more seriously, there is a certain inherent orneriness in picking unusual plot shapes or protagonists, a kind of low mutter of "I'll show them!" After the initial set-up, I do have to write my way into my books scene by scene, and let the story itself show me where it's going and how it's going to get there. I don't know how much suspense this creates for the readers, but it certainly creates suspense for me.

So there isn't exactly a gap to bridge. There is wanting, and there is doing. There really isn't an in-between state that isn't just more wanting. (Or whining.) "Planning" for me is diffuse, broken into small bites and spread throughout the whole of the doing.

In other words, at the working face I am never writing a novel. I am writing, at most, a scene (and then another, etc.) Or half a scene, or a paragraph, or whatever functional unit I can actually hold in my brain at one time.

But, certainly, there seems not much point in writing a story just like everyone else's, because they've already done that. I could just read theirs, for a lot less trouble. (Which is not quite the same thing as taking a trope or idea that delights me from the genre cornucopia off to a corner to play with my way. I certainly do that.)

Ta, L.
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Are any more Miles or Ivan related books in the works?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is in progress at this time.

Ta, L.
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Are you going to be making any appearances in Illinois or Missouri in the foreseeable future?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no appearances scheduled at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, your Barrayarans are some of my favourite people in the world. i loved the mix of cultures involved. Did you do much research into Russia and Greece beforehand or did you wing it? I am trying to write something set in Russia and I know scarily little about the culture. I was hoping you might have some tips on research.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I was mainly drawing on already acquired background. Keep in mind that Barrayar (or any other Nexus world) has about as much resemblance to current Earth countries as, say, modern Portland, Oregon has to 16th C. England and Japan. I'm not writing contemporary or historical fiction, here, just fiction informed -- or flavored -- by history. You are setting yourself a higher bar.

That said, assuming actual travel is out of your reach (as it was mine), you need lots and lots of nonfiction reading. You need both general overviews, to give you a framework, and first-person contemporary accounts, to find those telling details that all get filtered out of general histories. Eyewitness writings become harder to find the farther back in time one goes, but by the same token, one is less likely to be overwhelmed by the choices.

These days, you might also have the chance to get an on-line test reader/friend from the country of interest to Beta read for you. I know the fanfic community does some of that.

And finally, it may be worthwhile to remember that one has set out to tell a story, not write a PhD thesis. Research is potentially endless and endlessly seductive, but there comes a point when it's time to railroad.

Ta, L.
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How about a Cordelia based book?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Same answer, I'm afraid; there is nothing to report at this time.

Ta, L.
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Has anyone important ever asked you about making a movie of "Shards of Honor"? It's one of my all-time favorites and seems quite cinematic.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Short answer is, no.

I actually think Shards would be much easier to make into a feature film (that resembled the book -- not that Hollywood cares about that) than The Warrior's Apprentice, which is the one people seem to focus on. (Although the latter might go well as a TV mini-series.) But movie rights are a buyer's market, and there are very few legit, actually-capable-of-making-a-film producers buying.

I also think Falling Free could make a splendid animation or anime. But, as I am not a film producer with access to hundreds of millions of dollars and a couple-three decades of experience in the industry, which is what it takes, it is not up to me.

Ta, L.
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I just want to say that I love your work and you are by far my favourite writer. It's fascinating how all of your worlds are so real. I want to know will there be croatian edition of Sharing Knife series?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks!

No Croatian publisher has made an offer on the Sharing Knife books yet.

Algoritam licensed all three Chalion books and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, but I don't know how (or when) they are coming along.

Ta, L.
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Somewhere I remember reading that you started your writing career when your children were young and at home with you. What was that like and do you have any advice to parents trying to both write and care for kids? I also want to join the chorus of your fans by saying "Thank you!" This new Q&A feature is a great supplement to your goodreads blog posts.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I'm not sure there is a short answer aside from I Was A Lot Younger. I'm not going to write my autobiography here in this little box, but some of that period is touched on in my forwards and afterwords to my Baen omnibus editions, which are now all collected in Sidelines: Talks and Essays.

I'm not sure my guilt and time problems were any different from those of any other working mother, but the open and self-directed structure of writing makes it a lot harder and more confusing for a family to recognize as work -- even after one starts selling -- compared to a parent who goes out the door at 8 and doesn't show up again till 5. On the other hand, it was way more flexible -- I never had to beg a boss for time off to deal with family emergencies or illness, I didn't have to waste time on a commute, and the actual core hours involved were usually fewer than 40 (or 50, or 60) hours a week. On the downside, getting paid was a rare and random event. "I must go to work this week or I will be fired" is a lot more immediate an argument than "I must go to work or I might not get paid next year, maybe. Or perhaps the year after..." Especially when one is mining the couch cushions for milk money.

I actually developed my writing process in that environment, by collecting extensive notes in little bites over a period of days and then, when they reached critical mass, hiring a babysitter or using time my spouse was home to take my notebook (3-ring binder, not laptop -- they weren't invented yet, and I couldn't have afforded one even if they had been) to the public library and do the core first drafting in short bursts. Not for me a process where one sits in front of the computer for hours wrestling for inspiration. Once I had the first draft nailed to the page, I could bring it back and transcribe and edit in the more chaotic home environment, ditto any and all para-writing tasks. Once both kids were in grade school, this whole struggle went away -- school time was writing time. I only sent a sick kid to school a couple of times... :-( Summers, I went back to the old system, but since the kids were indeed older it was all less fraught.

Note that this all got started because, in a rust-belt town in the middle of a recession, I couldn't get a day job. (If I had, I might not be here today, so, whew for that.) How someone is to juggle a day job, a family, and writing, I cannot advise -- that's one more cat/chainsaw/burning torch than I ever tried to keep in the air at once.

Ta, L.
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Any chance of the story describing the episode "more than a simple assassination" that Miles mentions in A Civil Campaign? Or the one with a tenyearold girl as courier, mentioned in Komarr? Or are they doomed to be unvoiced backstory? Thanks for all the enjoyment you've provided already!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm afraid those are doomed to stay throw-away lines, along with the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant.

I am now having a vision of an annex to L-Space, somewhere, where all those unused characters and ideas from the whole of literature sit around getting drunk and complaining to each other about how they were robbed of their rightful places in the spotlight...

Ta, L.
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The characters in your Vorkosigan series have been cherished companions in the past year. I've enjoyed imagining the incredible galactic future you've painted, and reading the wonderful stories and crime mysteries you weave (Agatha Christie fan here). Your last book Cryoburn is especially poignant. Will you be writing more books in the Vorkosigan series?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you've enjoyed the trip!

With regard to future work, nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't think Cordelia ever got an apology, but in due course (after several years) her criminal charges got ironed out, so she and her mother could exchange a few visits. And, of course, so that Miles might make his later visits, which he seems to have done unexceptionably except for Bothari's assorted weapons violations.

The general reaction to the marriage was at first imaginatively negative; later, largely forgotten, as such news kerfluffles tend to be. There might have been the occasional article such as American women who marry important foreigners sometimes get, but Cordelia would not have cultivated such. (Someone on-staff might have been managing such PR for her.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Some considerable amount of this question can be answered by this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

which I'd read for general interest the summer, iirc, before I wrote that section of the Ivan book.

It also has, in that weird way writers' brains work, some inspiration in a climactic scene in an old Alec Guinness movie titled The Horse's Mouth. It's not a building that unexpectedly sinks, but the sort of hidden-in-plain-sight setup is reminiscent.

But I did not actually come up with ImpSec HQ's fate until I was almost at that scene in the writing. At the time the Arquas discovered where the old lab now was, I had no more idea than they did how they were to tunnel for access. From reading all those WWII POW-camp memoirs, I knew tunneling was not a trivial task, but then I remembered I was writing science fiction, and was not limited to 20th C. technology.

How the Mycoborer (tm) could go wrong in so many ways was inspired somewhat by my niece Molly's colon cancer awareness/teaching project, The Colossal Colon, which I will leave you to Google. And from that point on, the logical developments pretty much wrote themselves.

So it was a complicated tangle of feedback loops from many sources, not a single tidy logical string.

Ta, L.
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Hello Ms. Bujold, my family loves your books and we are all wondering if you would even consider making one of your books into a graphic novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, that's not up to me; some maker of graphic novels would have to ask to license it.

There was one such deal a few years back in French for The Warrior's Apprentice, with Soliel, who were going to do the book in three volumes. The first (which I had thought was pretty good, art-wise) sold so badly, they never did the following volumes.

Either my stories are hard to translate into visual media, or the audience for same isn't much into stores like mine. Or both. Although one data point is not a proof, it was rather daunting. So I'm not holding my breath.

Ta, L.
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I just wanted to thank you for so many of my "would I like to have dinner with this person?" fictional characters. It is hard to beat Peter Whimsey, but Cazaril and Cordelia are right up there. (Miles would be too, except that something awful would happen during the meal.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome!

Ta, L.
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If you could live anywhere in the Vorkosigan universe, where would it be and why? What are your favourite places to write about/set stories in the Vorkosigan universe? A last and somewhat related question, why aren't there more space stations? It seems like most everyone lives on planets and stationers like Elli are somewhat rare. Is this intentional or are there a lot more out there we haven't encountered yet?
Lois McMaster Bujold
At this stage of my life, I think I'd pick somewhere advanced with really good medical care. But probably not Beta Colony, because I like the outdoors too much. The less advanced planets, clearly, are easier to set stories on -- more goes horribly wrong.

The place is littered with space stations -- every advanced planet maintains them, civilian or military, by their wormholes and in orbit, and sometimes for several systems beyond. They all tend to be rather alike, due to technological constraints -- even less tolerance for things going wrong than downside. That said, it seems to me I've featured a lot of them in the tales -- Elli's home, Quaddiespace, the Hegen Hub, the factory one Miles captures in WA, the one at the climax of Komarr, a dozen transfer points in the Miles stories. Mirror Dance starts on one, CryoBurn ends on one... the list goes on.

Stations and ships do require highly self-controlled populations. Planets, in addition to offering free air and gravity and all that attractive space, have more elbow room for erratic behavior.

Ta, L.
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One of the things I love about your books is the voices of the characters, both internal and in dialogue, which are so clear and distinct. I was wondering if you've ever written plays?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've never written any, but I've seen quite a few. In addition to those seen earlier in my life, for several years after I moved to Minneapolis, a friend and I had season tickets to the Guthrie Theater, where we would take in 6 a year of considerable variety. In addition, I was a member of a (now defunct) play-reading group; we ran through quite a lot of Shakespeare, among other things. (Modern playwrights were more of a problem to do due to variant or unavailable editions.)

Plays (as contrasted with TV and film, in which everyone's brains are steeped) are interesting because the dialogue must carry so much more of the story-telling.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold No to the first question, maybe someday to the second. It would want to be a novelette or novella, I think, but I have no clue what was involved either. I'm not sure what all it would need to keep it from becoming too drearily political, yet still call for the combined talents of both Miles and Duv.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Lois! I'm from Russia and I really like your Saga of Vorkosigan. I think miles and one of the most vivid and strong characters in fantastic prose. Tell me, were you offered ever to make a movie or series about Vorkosigan? Or maybe you wanted this story was brought to the screen? With respect to your work, Alla.
Lois McMaster Bujold
There was a movie offer back in the mid-1990s on The Warrior's Apprentice, which went as far as a script. The script was so dire, with less than zero relationship to the original book, I was enormously relieved when they didn't go on to make a movie from it. That experience pretty much cured me of any desire for a media adaptation.

Georgette Heyer never had a movie made from any of her books, but in just two years she will be coming up on 100 years of her books being in continuous print, read by millions over that time. I could be quite content with a century-long career like that, even if didn't live to see all of it.

Making a movie of Miles would be harder than it looks, since so much of the important action and humor is taking place inside his head, in his thoughts, not visible to the outside observer, or to the camera.

Ta, L.
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Hi there Lois, I was wondering if you think you will ever go back to see what's happened on Athos? That's the biggest cliffhanger of the series, to me...
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no plans to do so at this time.

I was a bit sorry that I'd given my universe such a very 60s-Analog element, although in my defense I did give it a non-magical physical substrate. ("There are no effects without causes" and all that.) I'd have to think of something different to do with a rather well-worked-over trope.

(There was a good book by Rebecca (R. M.) Meluch that did some pretty interesting things with a telepath... can't recall the title offhand. It might have been The Queen's Squadron or it might have been another.... (quick Amazon check -- yeah, that was it.) Downer ending, though. She does good work -- check out her books.)

Ta, L.
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Is there any chance of getting more prequel novels in the Vorkosigan Saga? I have read all of the books, and one of my coworkers (who turned me on to them the books about 4 years ago) both would love to see a book detailing the Komarr revolt, or the Cetagandan occupation with focus on Aral and Piotr respectively.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No such plans at this time.

My current interests run more to comedy than to drama, I confess. I think I'm also overdue for something completely different, without a giant series backstory to wrestle. Making the same text serve, simultaneously, trufans who remember it all, occasional fans who have read only some stories and remember it only dimly, and brand-new readers who know nothing except what is on the page in front of them right now, is... a tricky balancing act. And yet late-series books can also present other artistic opportunities that single novels can't, so, go figure.

Ta, L.
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Hello! I loved the Sharing Knife and Chalion series, but Sharing Knife really resonated with me. It's such a unique world and I've never read one like it. While I'm sure you get these questions all the time, will you explore the Sharing Knife universe further? Perhaps maybe a 50 years into the future or something. I'd love to see how Dag and Fawn, and their children, change their world. Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have nothing new going on with The Sharing Knife universe at this time. I don't rule anything out, because I've discovered my backbrain can ambush me unexpectedly, but certainly nothing soon.

Dag and Fawn's tale feels told to me (and at great length, too.) In general what I need to start a story, and what I want to explore during the course of it, is not a setting or an idea, but a character or characters. Once I have the characters, well, the question of "what ideas can challenge this person?" brings things into line nicely.

This is rather the opposite of some classic SF tropes, where the characters are got up to display the ideas. The clearest example being where some random Redshirt is sacrificed to demonstrate the capabilities of the alien weapon; what's most important about the scene is the weapon, not the person. This is also done on a much larger scale and less obviously not just with alien weapons, but with all sorts of things up to and including political ideas. My brain does not seem to work that way. So what I need to start a new project is not an idea, but a person (one who, for whatever reason, matters to me) to whom that idea will matter.

Ta, L.
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Vorkosigan saga is brilliant. I'm pleasantly surprised how much I loved Vorpatril's alliance which led me to conclusion that you managed to achieve a specific mood where more than one character can be a main protagonist without changing "feeling" of the story which I believe is quite difficult :). Are you considering continuing quest star stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am not sure what you mean by "quest star stories". Every character is the center of their own universe, and therefore every character has some story potential. Some will be more interesting to me than others, but then there follows the question, "Will this interest sustain a whole novel?" Those are more rare. (Jo Walton has dubbed this centering quality "protagonismus".)

There's also the matter of plot-character interlock, as each creates the other. Some characters come with one perfect plot, and when that tale is told, they're done, ready to retire. Some more flexible characters can sustain more than one plot or one kind of plot, and from these sorts the writer can more readily squeeze a series.

The most difficult thing with late-series books is wrestling the backstory, even when it's cut down to just the most immediately pertinent backstory. This was pretty readily do-able when I just had 6 books; 16 is more of a challenge. As I've said elsewhere, the exact same text must be made to simultaneously serve the dedicated fan who remembers everything, the occasional reader whose familiarity with it all is dim, and the new reader who can know nothing but what is on the page now. Tricky stuff.

Ta, L.
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I'm re-reading the Chalion books right now, trying to capture some of their essence for my own novel, and I am struck with a paradox. How can there be multiple religions in a world where the gods literally talk to people?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Technically, there are not multiple religions; there are multiple heresies of one religion. Which can certainly supply all the fun and games of any other religious conflict, and more, as history shows.

The gods of Chalion are all about souls, and are indifferent to politics as such. People who want to conscript the gods to their side find this deeply confusing at times.

What's really interesting to consider/speculate upon is how a person might contrive to be an atheist in the world of Chalion. People being people, I bet some manage it.

Ta, L.
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Hi. Before Captain Vorpatrils Alliance was published, it was released and sold as an e-arc. I gathered at the time that was a bit of an experiment. Did that work out for you? Is that some thing you would consider doing with future releases? Assuming you have a say in such things, of course. I, for one, will buy anything you care to publish. Thank you. -Daiv
Lois McMaster Bujold
The e-ARCS are a Baen Thing. They do it for selected lead books, according to some calculation of their own.

The e-ARCS have worked out just fine for me, so far. One of the fringe benefits, I have found, is that we get several hundred free proofreaders, to catch all those little glitches that have escaped the editorial net so far (and there are always some.) One must filter out the things identified as mistakes which aren't, of course, and there is inevitable duplication, but on the whole I have found this beneficial.

Ta, L.
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Are you worried that spending a lot of time communicating with your fans, especially in answering questions about older works, keeps you from getting back to writing and getting into the mood for something unrelated to past books? I have realized that if i spend too much time noodling on the Internet and Facebook and Goodreads, I don't get much else done for the day.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It certainly is a distraction, but if I didn't have it, I would just go looking for something else. I suppose I needed something to replace all that computer solitaire... (I finally had my son take the game off my machine.)

If the writing is going well, it's not too hard to ignore the distractions. If not, not.

There are physical limits in play as well -- only so much eye and butt fatigue tolerated per day. One must be aware of one's endurance and use one's limits wisely. Or so I theorize...

The constant tug back to older works is a subtler problem. I have that on the pro side as well, in the editing and proofreading of new editions of older material. I just spent the past two weeks going over the files of books I'd written in 1983 and 1984, bringing them up to my 2015 punctuation standards and so on. This is not time I spent thinking up anything new, so I suppose it adds up. (It was a pretty good way to spend two weeks of a Minnesota February, however.)

Ta, L.
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I'm a Kobo ereader user. (As an overseas librarian, I dislike Kindle's proprietary attitude, and avoid them.) I noticed only a few of your books were available in the Kobo store. I remember years ago there was an independent site that had many of your ebooks, but I'm not sure they're still working. Is there a chance that Spirit Ring and the Baen books would be available in non-Kindle epub format sometime soon?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My direct-placement e-books are all currently available in Kindle, iPad, and Nook versions. There is some doubt among the people who help me with these things that Kobo is a large enough vendor to be worthwhile; this may change in future.

The old Fictionwise got bought out and eaten by Barnes and Noble. So all those placements are long gone.

HarperCollins does seem to have my fantasy novels up in the public library Overdrive system. I don't have a clear idea about how that is working out. I would like to get my direct placement e-books out on there as well, but that is waiting on finding out more.

Ta, L.
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Will we ever see a Vorkosigan movie?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That's not up to me. Some competent filmmaker would have to license the rights and produce the film, and there are none on my horizon at present.

Ta, L.
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So many series get bogged down in later books by having to involve every character ever named and bringing them up to date. I love the way you've avoided this in the Curse of Chalion series. And we've seen Miles from birth to Count, so even as a fan, I'm not sure I'd want more. But are you working on a new series, or is this a forbidden question?
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are no forbidden questions as such, though some may get more satisfactory answers than others.

I am not working on a new series at this time.

Should I have anything new to announce (winters in Minnesota are long, dark, cold, and conducive to indoor activities, after all), I would make a blog post. However, as I am not one of those people who counts up their clicks (why, for pity's sake?), I'm not much into teasing. If there is something firm to say, I'll just say it.

Ta, L.
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I know a lot of people ask you when you're going to write another Miles book, but I feel like Cordelia is the only one of your major characters that hasn't reached the end of her character arc and I think I'd very much like to read a book about how she manages the transition into the next phase of her life after Aral's death. Is there anything like that brewing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Something could happen in that direction. (But it wouldn't be a war story, certainly.)

Ta, L.
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As you've gotten older, wiser, and perhaps a more capable writer, do you look back on things you wrote early in your career and wish you could change them? I once saw an interview with Spielberg about Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He talks about how he could never have had Richard Dreyfus' character go off on the space and leave his children behind, if he'd made the movie after he became a father. Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Aside from improving the copy-editing, no. I figure those books were written by that Lois, then; they belong to her, and I shouldn't go messing about with them. They say that in 20 years even one's bones replace themselves. I think the 2015 Lois would be better off spending the time writing something new than in diving down that endlessly extending rabbit hole. (Because, of course, ten years from now I would have yet another perspective, etc.) Also, Han shot first.

Or, of course, I could spend more time goofing off. I am very behind on my goofing off, I figure.

Ta, L.
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What do you think about a Robert Downey Jr. movie portrayal of Miles? This video clip of the actor doing pro-bono work brought the idea to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEx5lmbCKtY
Lois McMaster Bujold
Cool vid, but the most intriguing part is not shown, which is the 3-D printer. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens with that technology.

Not sure what this has to do with a hypothetical Miles movie, though. Downey himself is too old to play Miles, alas.

Ta, L.
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This is tiny, but: In your head, do you pronounce Tej as "Tedge" or "Tey"? South Asian languages vary a lot, so Tejaswini _could_ be either "Tedge-a-swee-nee" or "Tey-as-vee-nee." It's silly, but it kept tugging at the edge of my brain as I read _Alliance_. Ended up switching between the two randomly, whichever "sounded" appropriate at the time. I know your answer may not change this for me, but I wondered. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I pronounce Tej with a soft J like "Bujold". ;-) More that soft French J than the harder sound of edge or ledge. I'm trying to think of an English word that has that sound... I'm sure there must be one, but I'm blanking on it right this moment. Bon jour and all that.

(Not Tey, though.)

Hope this helps --

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, May I offer you not a question but a love letter? "The Curse of Chalion" is PERFECT. Of course I want you to write more, you do it so very well on so many levels, and in so many worlds, but I also want you to take care of yourself and be properly balanced before you start to lift the next story. Be well. Diana
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

bests, Lois.
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Dear Mrs Bujold, Everyone loves Miles, myself included. (I loved each and every one of the _Chalion_ books as well. The "Knife" series... were only very good, and nothing spectacular... but I guess that's just me. Sorry.) However, I am very curious if you'd ever thought about having Aral Vorkosigan as a main character? We're indeed aware of most of his story, but I've always found him more intriguing than Miles...
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've always thought Aral worked better as a character by not giving his viewpoint. He has this enormous gravity, that everyone else revolves around; it would all look very different from his angle of view.

I don't at present envision going back in time for a tale, but one never knows.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, Cordelia has had 40 more years of complicated living and observation by then. She is also at that moment about as emotionally exhausted as it is possible for a person to be. Cordelia's thoughts represent Cordelia, not a platform for the author.

I had planned to end the book upon the words, "Count Vorkosigan sir?" But the epilogue presented itself to my brain over about a two-day period during my revision stage, sluicing through at white heat from wherever such things come from. Confluence, compounding, confounding, all of those; but not planning in the sense this question posits.

That said, I have had since I wrote Shards a lot more experience, both directly and through watching friends and relatives up close, with those end-of-life issues that cluster around the body outliving the mind. (And I'd had considerable observation before then, as a hospital worker.) When I was 15 and first read the appendix to The Lord of the Rings that recounts the death of Aragorn, I did not understand it, and resisted it fiercely in a fanficcish sort of way, right along with Arwen. I don't argue with it now.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for decades of reading and re-reading pleasure. I've started to learn Spanish, and have been looking for your titles as ebooks. I was able to buy Criopolis, La búsqueda sagrada, and Paladín de almas. I have seen listings on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for others, but they are "currently unavailable." Do you know how I can buy the rest of your titles as ebooks in Spanish here in the States?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, alas, I do not.

If anyone else does, feel free to chip in. I'm not sure if the Spanish branch of Amazon would be a help, since it does not meet the criteria "in the States".

Most of my books have been published in Spanish at one time or another, but I suspect most are long out of print.

Ta, L.
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Any thoughts about writing an autobiography that covers influences on your work? An autobiography might complement the upcoming biography quite nicely -- since you have special access to the primary source...
Lois McMaster Bujold
For the same amount of time and energy, I could probably write a new novel. Doesn't seem like a good trade to me...

;-), L.

(That said, there is Sidelines: Talks and Essays --

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... )
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I just wanted to say "Thank You". The Vorkosigan books, Cordelia and Miles and even Ivan, have enriched my life in infinite ways. The Sharing Knife books were beautifully written stories that I LOVE. I feel I would be a less full person had I not discovered your work. Any new fantasy worlds bubbling in your brain?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My brain is pretty quiescent just at the moment, having just come off a book project that took (with assorted interruptions) three times longer than usual, and with the final edit still to go. I think the next thing on my agenda is a few more bites of semi-retirement. Plus some fresh reading and watching, and then there's the Minnesota summer to enjoy which, after the Minnesota winter, one is due. After that, who knows? Certainly not me.

So glad you liked The Sharing Knife! That one tends to get short shrift sometimes.

Ta, L.
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I hope you're having a lovely day, Ms Bujold. I was wondering if there was any chance of you attending NerdCon: Stories? The possibility of your attendance is probably just wishful thinking on my part, but I'm sure the panels and conversations being held there would benefit greatly from your input. And I (and the group I am going with,) would certainly be excited to see you in person!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm doing very few cons these days (part of my semi-retirement), so, likely not.

bests, L.
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In your description of Miles' clothing, you often use the words jacket and tunic, like in A Civil Campaign when he shows Ekaterin the little admiral, His mercenary uniform has a jacket but his Auditor's grey suit has a tunic. You especially refer to Barrayaran uniforms as having tunic tops. I always read tunic and see sleeve-less and long to the mid-thigh, but that can't be right. How do you envision the tunic tops?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I envision them as like military cadet tunics -- jackets with high round collars, variously fastened. One can see the style in a lot of anime boys' high-school uniforms as well. (I was just rewatching xxxHolic -- there's an example.) Also Nehru jackets. In short, I am using the two terms almost interchangeably.

Ta, L.
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Can you tell us anything about Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen?
Lois McMaster Bujold

I've been mulling over when to say more. I'm thinking late fall, just before the eARC becomes available, but I'll probably break down and say some things sooner.

I figure if I give you all very much information, you'll all race ahead and make up the book in your heads yourselves, and then be artificially nonplussed, later, when the book I wrote doesn't match the one/s you've envisioned. If a reader has less time between learning about a book and reading it -- picking it up cold in a store, say -- there is less chance for that phenomenon to develop.

It is not a war story; it is about grownups; it is not grimdark but still embeds some serious themes. It is science fiction. I expect reader response to be all over the map, because it always is.

Some readers will love it (I say this with some confidence, because some already have), some will hate it, and there will be approximately ten thousand reviews that go, "This wasn't the book I wanted! Here, let me give you this 500 word outline of outline what she should have written..." Each one different from all the others, of course. (That one's a sucker-bet.)

What say you all? How much information to you actually want to get, in advance?

Ta, L.
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Although Miles' romances are always with women significantly taller than he is (in part because nearly everybody is) I've noticed the cover art always finds a way to avoid showing a short man with a tall woman. Either we see people head to head or a secondary character with his girl instead of Miles, etc. How do you feel about this phenomenon?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Resigned.

I've pretty much given up on the idea of cover art as illustration. Thematic covers would be OK, if one could come up with iconic images that represent the theme or tone of the book.

Ta, L.
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What aspects of your life do you consistently use in your stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Er... all of them?

Although not, it must be said, all at the same time. I pick and choose from all that I know/have done/have read according to the needs of the story at hand. Insofar as the stories are not all alike, neither are their sources. (I think what makes this question so hard to answer may be the "consistently" part.)

Also note that jumping off from this substrate of "the entire contents of my head" to a story involves a whole lot of transformations, amalgams, cross-linkages, and other meta-games as a natural part of creativity.

Ta, L.
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Your descriptions of Miles' bones breaking are very visceral. Have you suffered many broken bones?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have never had a broken bone, no. I've had a few other minor injuries over time, or things like wisdom teeth removed etc., but not even any major surgery till a few years ago.

Call it... "creativity"? :-)

Ta, L.
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One of my favorite minor characters in the Vorkosigan Saga is Commander Cavilo from The Vor Game. Do you have any thoughts about what she got up to after serving her time?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ah, there's a question often asked.

I don't think "serving her time" is a correct way to think of her, as she was never jailed. She got away with a remnant of Randall's Rangers; how long she held them together afterward is another open question, but I suspect not long. If nothing else she'd have had to abandon them so as to be less findable by Cetagandan hit squads. Whether she finally managed to evade them is another unanswered question. If not, she no longer exists as a potential plot generator. If so, she'd still want to stay as far away from that quadrant of the Nexus that contains both Barrayar and Cetaganda as possible. She's pretty twisty, but I don't think she's into the sort of deranged revenge as an end in itself that could cost her more than she stood to gain.

Not that she would turn up her nose at any revenge that came along as a bonus side effect of other efforts. But it wouldn't be a goal.

She was obviously an adrenaline junkie, or she wouldn't have been in the line of work in which we first encountered her. While she'd doubtless have less of that as she aged, her post-Vor Game employment could go to either legitimate or non-legitimate enterprises, as long as she saw profit in it for her.

Another open question is how much she learned from her Hegen Hub experiences, and what-all she identified, once she calmed down, as "That was a mistake -- let's not do that again."

Ta, L.
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It's a nerd specific question but I admit to being an obsessed fan: what happens to the liveried butter bugs? Do they manage to catch the queen before she burrows into Vorkosigan House, or is Vorbarr Sultana overrun with them. And if so can Miles ( and his Armsman) laugh about it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think they did manage to catch the queen again, but a few stray liveried worker bugs would still be turning up here and there for a long time after the events of A Civil Campaign. Possibly as far as a few blocks away. Given that the bugs are clearly labeled, I can see random persons returning them to VK House for the reward if they could catch them... or generating interesting paranoid rumors about them if they couldn't.

Miles would not be much inclined to laugh till after the dividends from assorted bug enterprises started to come in. These would do quite a bit to soothe him in due course. The Armsmen, well... 20 guys, 20 possible responses, so you have a range of possibilities there. Possibly also pegged to who invested early and who didn't.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois! I am always confused about whether I should look for your books under "McMaster" or under "Bujold" in local stores. Can you elucidate what your "surname" is? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ah, good question to get clarified.

The surname is "Bujold", and my books should be listed under the Bs.

McMaster is my maiden name, which I use as my middle name. So there should be no hyphens, either. Both stores and libraries, as well as readers, sometimes get confused about this, unfortunately.

(I sometimes wish, as I am sitting there writing my tripartite name over and over at book signings, that I had gone with the shorter "Lois McMaster" as my writing name, but it is too late now to change. At least Bujold appears higher in any alphabetic list, which can't hurt for visibility.)

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, I just read the Curse of Chalion and I really liked how the plot was fluid. I was delighted by Caz. My question: is Caz designed as a central character or occurring after the idea of the curse? What came first the chicken or the egg? Big warm greetings from Croatia.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Caz came first, and hung around in limbo for rather a long time till his setting, with a lot of pre-fabricated plot elements, arrived in the form of 15th C. Spanish court history. The idea of the curse slotted in subsequently -- I mean, a curse would explain so much about the real historical place and period...

The proto-Caz might have alighted in some other country of the era, as I was especially interested in that cadre of men who rose from the middle classes to become the right hands of assorted kings and queens and wrangle the transition from medieval realms to more modern styles of nation-states. Walsingham, Cisneros, Richelieu, the ill-fated David Riccio, etc.

In general, potential ideas or settings don't do much for me till an interesting character arrives. Only then does a story come alive.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, Vorkosigan saga is a masterpiece. Mindblowing thoughts ran through my head while reading it. The world you have created is magnificent. I wish HBO wanted to record tv-series of books. Would you sell them the rights? Have you ever had an offer for a film adaptation? Big greetings from Croatia.
Lois McMaster Bujold
If we had a viable, legitimate offer, sure. It's a buyer's market, though. Very few production companies are up to creating such a media series -- it takes a barge-load of money and highly experienced people -- and they have a million books to choose from.

I had one feature film offer about, good grief, twenty years ago now, which went as far as a script, which was unfortunately dire. It pretty much cured me of any excitement or hope about the process, I'm afraid.

There would likely be a better chance of more of the actual book making it onto the small screen than the big one. Although Falling Free (animation!) or Shards of Honor might actually work better for a feature film than the Miles tales, as they are shorter and more self-contained.

Ta, L.
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Throughout the series I was immensely impressed with Gregor, can we expect any sideline book featuring him as the main character? (Please say yes...) :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, no such thing is planned at this time.

Many of my secondary characters could have whole books of their own, but there is only one of me. (And no, I'm not interested in farming things out, sorry.)

Ta, L. Slow writer, getting slower.
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Heard about the EM Drive? Invention appears to defy classical mechanics by producing thrust from energy without using propellant, which violates conservation of momentum. NASA is testing and so far hasn't managed to disprove it - in other words, continues to validate the invention. Could lead to viable space travel. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hope it works out!

Indeed, I never pictured my own stories' ships moving through Nexus normal space using reaction mass of any kind. Gravitational rowing, for all I know, but not spitting stuff out the back end at high velocity. So many problems with the physics of that.

(Yes, I know "fuel" gets mentioned, because one can't get something for nothing, not to mention "thrusters", but one should not be picturing chemical combustants.)

Ta, L.
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Strange question: I found out about your books from a recommendation by author Jim Butcher, of the Dresden Files. He said of you, "One of the Best craftsman working in science fiction today." I've since devoured nearly everything you've written. He also said, "Wants to have her Babies." Then clarified by saying, he would personally bear children for you. He's a big fan. Are you aware of this proposal from Jim?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I wasn't, but hey, with uterine replicators, anything is possible...

:-), L.
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The astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station is a Trekkie and has posed for pictures in the ISS in a Star Trek costume. Do you also have fans in high places? Other than us Goodreads followers, of course. (Trekkie astronaut picture: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/05/first_espresso_in_space/)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am told that my books were, at least at one time, among those available in the ISS e-library.

Making my work read on all seven continents and in outer space, which seems a very fine boast to me. (I once had a fan send me a snap of a couple of my titles from a base library in Antarctica.)

Ta, L.
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In 2016 the 40th Wiscon is coming up. Do you think you might attend / Are you considering attending the convention? I would be delighted to meet you there if you go.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have been very much reducing my convention attendance and other PR obligations -- that's a big part of the semi in my semi-retired. So, probably not.

Ta, L.
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I understand that you've cut back on your PR appearances, but is there any chance that you'll be in the Midwest in the next few years? I've been a fan of your books since I was twelve.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I'll be around Minneapolis from time to time. But there is nothing else in my schedule at the moment. (Nor am I looking for anything to be.)

Ta, L.
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I'm curious: what were the Imperial Auditors up to during Vordarian's pretendership? I suspect that the real answer is "Nothing, because you hadn't invented them yet", but I wonder what their role would be in a situation like that.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, your first speculation is not wrong, but, taking them as an undetermined box in which anything might be happening as long as it didn't impinge on Cordelia's then-frame-of-view, I would expect, with 8 or 9 men, several possibilities. Any who were known loyalists to Aral would have been put under arrest, if Vordarian could catch them before they went underground. One or more could have died resisting or defying arrest. Any he could suborn, he would have. Fence-sitters would have found plausible bolt-holes, but not have been trusted by Aral afterward, and would have been encouraged to retire.

Vordarian didn't have long enough as emperor to appoint his own stable, I'm afraid. Luckily for them.

Ta, L.
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I'm a third of the way through Cryoburn, and I just have to ask- are you a fan of Nikolai Gogol, too?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have not read Gogol, so cannot say. So many books, so little time!

Ta, L.
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Ms. Bujold: I've always wondered at what point during or after _The Curse of Chalion_ you conceived _Paladin of Souls_ and Ista's journey from mad woman to Saint. I would not have guessed reading _Chalion_ that Ista would go on to be the sequel protagonist: when did you know? (I love all of your books, but these two are my absolute favourites. Thank you for so much reading enjoyment!)
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, The Curse of Chalion was written on-spec, conceived as a stand-alone, and finished before I ever offered it to a publisher. So I don't think I was thinking of an Ista-book before then, even though that last scene does seem to be a promissory note in retrospect. However, HarperCollins wanted a three-book contract (which we cut down to two, because I had become skittish about mortgaging my future -- remember, an advance for an unwritten book is not income, an advance is a debt, which must be worked off), so I had this big blank spot to fill. My obligation was just for "a fantasy novel", content unspecified.

I do remember describing my initial ideas for Ista to my HC editor Jen Brehl at one of the Worldcons (?), sitting on tall stools at some trendy cafe, and getting the usual nonplussed look I get from editors when I try to describe my initial ideas. I remember much the same look on Jim Baen's face over dinner at Philcon '89, when I was first describing Barrayar. They seem to get over it by the time I turn in the manuscript, though, so that look of vague editorial dismay doesn't counter-alarm me anymore.

The book still took some developing. It was competing for my attention with what became Diplomatic Immunity, as by the concatenation of circumstances I had ended up with contracts from two different publishers for unwritten books, and each was blocking progress on the other, which was when I discovered that I am really not a writer who can work on multiple projects at the same time. After nine months of fretting I eventually set Ista aside to concentrate on DI first, and things started to move again. Once the book for Baen was bagged, I was able to give Ista my total attention. Happily, during the intervening year some new ideas slotted into place, filling out the scheme, so the extra gestation time was all to the good.

Ta, L.
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? Wanted to send you a note to say how much I have enjoyed the Vorkosigan saga. My husband introduced me to Shards of Honor, and I fell in love with your writing style and the characters. We just got a new puppy this weekend and named him Ivan. My husband wanted to be able to yell, "That idiot Ivan!" when the dog does something. Thought it was a perfect name for a lovable pup that will inevitably become a scapegoat.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good luck with your puppy!

bests, Lois.

(PS, Persons who want to send brief personal messages can also do so through Goodreads' own message/e-mail system. So far, I've only used mine to answer, not to initiate, but it doesn't seem to be too opaque, though it may have other quirks of which I am still unaware.)
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Are you done with the Vorkosigan universe? It's been a big part of our whole family's lives. We always anticipated a book in which Ivan's careful avoidance of obvious competence came out (probably because of a woman he was in love with) and I have to say that Vorpatril's Alliance did not disappoint. But I'd love to see one with Mark as the protagonist, and also Miles as he gets older.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, we'll see what Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen does for you.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

But after three new Vorkosigan books in a row, none of them planned, I think I'm ready for a break from that universe.

Ta, L.
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I recently finished reading a biography of T.E. Lawrence and am now reading his book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I was struck by some parallels between his life and Miles Vorkosigan's. Was Lawrence an inspiration for you, or am I imagining things?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, he was. One of them, at any rate -- very seldom does inspiration have only one source. (The young Winston Churchill also has a foot in there, somewhere.)

The movie came out when I was a teen; I followed up with a lot of reading about the man himself including that memoir, which was a deal more complex and a bit beyond what my shallow teen brain could process, but I suppose the stretch was good for it. My understanding grew better as I grew older and learned more, both about the period of history and people generally. It has been some decades since I revisited Seven Pillars; it would be interesting to reread it again now and see how much it has changed, including in light of a half-century more of history unfolding. :-)

Also interesting, if you can find a copy, is Lawrence's The Mint. A tinge of that went into Camp Permafrost, in an oblique sort of way.

Ta, L.
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Is there a listing somewhere that gives the Vokosigan Saga in the order it was published? I started reading the series on the recommendation of a co-worker, and the library provided Mirror Dance and Memory. Going forward from there I read them in publication order, but that's not very different from the internal chronology. I collected the earlier books over time, and read them as flashbacks.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm, I'm going to have to throw this one open to other GR participants to answer. I don't have one up my sleeve. Wikipedia might have something.

My own usual list is internal-chronological, here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

One can usually find first publication/copyright dates on the back of the title page in a paper book, though the omnibus editions and magazine publications sometimes confuse that. I'm not sure there is a set standard placement of such matter for e-books.

Ta, L.
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Rereading the Miles books again, and I've become very curious how much P.G. Wodehouse you'd read, and whether he influenced your ideas for the Vor in particular, or your comic plotting?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wodehouse has been an occasional read for me, and certainly not an early one. So I wouldn't name him any kind of major influence.

The Vor came more from Japanese samurai with a dash of European and Russian military castes.

Ta, L.
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Have you read Judith Merkle O'Reilly's books? She reminds me of you in some non-concrete way. She's in that small core of authors I love with all my heart. I believe there are only six books. She is no longer with us so there won't be more.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I'm afraid I haven't read this writer, although her name sounds dimly recognizable (I won't say familiar). Wikipedia, I see, has no entry for her. I find a Judith O'Reilly mentioned on Amazon, evidently a British writer -- same one?

Ta, L.
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What notable items have you crossed off your bucket list, and what are the top items left on the list?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can't say as I've thought much about bucket lists. One of my long-time ambitions was realized when Captain Vorpatril's Alliance made the real NYTimes bestseller list, what gets shorthanded as the Big List -- my later books had tapped the extended list enough times by then to make me think it possible and not a pipe dream.

Regrets, I think, are not bucket-list material. "I wish I'd done X differently in 1969," and the like. Also dangerous; if one could go back and change things, one might risk arriving at a less satisfactory outcome in the long run. Other things tend to be not under anyone's control, such as, "I wish my spine would stop having arthritic deterioration." Death would halt such declines, I suppose, but it's not a solution I favor. Be careful what you wish for and all that.

I'm pretty happy right where I am, really.

Ta, L.
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I love libraries and book stores. However, when I browse rows upon rows of books I often doubt if my own writing will contribute or amount to much, especially when weighed against the great investment required of my very finite time. Did you ever face similar doubts? If so, how did you reason/wrestle with them?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, of course. I was probably driven through most of them by economic pressures that were indifferent to my feelings.

"Changing the world" or even "changing the world of science fiction" was never my goal, fortunately. "Not getting my utilities cut off for nonpayment of bills" was. That, happily, turned out to be a more feasible aim.

It is the nature of the book market that one cannot be financially successful without also being well-known, one's name being one's brand-name, more or less. Which is felt to be the means and which the end will vary from writer to writer, natch. And whether one really needs "rich and famous" or if "self-supporting and well-known in my field" will do. Beware those moving goalposts, which can always make one feel artificially bad.

"How high is up?" is one of those dangerous questions that each writer must answer for themselves. Setting goals unrealistically high guarantees frustration, too low risks not challenging oneself to do as well as one otherwise might. (As a rule of thumb, it is also better to focus on what you can do, and not on other people's non-controllable responses. "Finish a book" is controllable, "sell a book" less so, "become a bestseller or win an award" still less so. Unhappy is the writer who boards this train wrong way round.)

As for time, it passes at exactly the same rate for everyone, regardless of how one chooses to apportion it. It's all choices and tradeoffs. Some prices might really be too high, some rewards too meager; only the person who is leading that life can decide.

That said, when I contemplate the ever-upthrusting mountain range of reading matter in the world, effectively infinitely more than I could ever read in my remaining lifetime, I do sometimes wonder why on earth I'm trying to make more, yeah -- if that were my only motivation. Except that writing is in itself an intrinsic pleasure for me, if a weird one -- I sometimes wonder if writing fiction ought to be classified as a dissociative disorder. So I would likely still be making up stories even if no one else wanted them, only with less social approval.

Ta, L.
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I was just at Amazon to link a book recommendation, and I was saddened to see the new and very unappealing series of book covers on all but *Cryoburn* and *Captain Vorpatril's Alliance*. I realize that you as author don't get much input about book cover art, but I'm curious if you were told that the Baen covers had been replaced. Do you know what caused the change?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have had many book covers over the years. Which one/s are you referring to? (A couple of links would likely help clarify this, picture:words, 1:1000 and all that.)

Ta, L.
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This is less a question, and more something interesting I came across, that I thought you'd be interested in: You were successfully able to predict the future! http://europe.newsweek.com/chinas-one-child-policy-has-backfired-men-327875 Thoughts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is going to be a very interesting real-life experiment in unexpected consequences, as time goes on. I've been watching it out of the corner of my eye for quite some time. The article does suggest it makes a big difference whether the women in question are of an educated class or not -- but that would make a difference anyway, so, hard to tell at a glance.

Ta, L.
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I've read my way through almost the whole Vorkosigan series in the last couple of weeks, and enjoyed them thoroughly. Have you ever done any "dream casting" of actors/celebrities as your characters? (As someone who has a hard time drawing a mental picture from text, especially when it comes to faces—it's a weird neurological disconnect—I'd love to be able to "see" them as you visualized them.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This seems to be a common fannish sport. I don't do it much, but if you like, you can picture Oliver Reed playing Aral, and Paul Darrow playing Duv Galeni. Cordelia might be vaguely young-Vanessa-Redgrave. Illyan seems to be some kind of cross between David McCallum and Walter Koenig. Adjust ages as needed,

Miles is hard, although there was an actor who played Richard III in a long-ago TV production that had something of him, lots of energy. Have forgotten his name. (Checks internet -- Ron Cook -- 30 years back. 1983 production, tho' I don't remember when I saw it.) Otherwise, characters' visages mostly float, even when I'm writing them.

Ta, L.
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I want to thank you for taking the time to answer all our questions. I have one that I recently thought to ask you. What have you learned from the your readers or others in the writing community that has had a positive impact on your life?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That question is much too broad to answer! You are asking about 35 years of learning experiences, here... :-)

That said, for aspiring writers there's this for teaching about writing: http://pcwrede.com/blog/

Go back to the beginning and read till you get to the now, and you will pick up an awful lot of practical, sensible, professional advice.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Multiple personality disorder is an old, and perhaps somewhat factitious, idea. The more recent notions about dissociative disorders generally seem to rest on somewhat more solid foundations. The rest was creative insight; putting myself in Mark's skin and thinking it through, which is what a writer does when creating any character, more or less convincingly.

I don't know if Mark and Kareen will ever marry; they seem to be getting along fine with a galactic-style partnership. If they did, they might well have a choice of which legal codes to marry under, which could matter. If they ever decide to have children, that could change, but probably won't until that point.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I'm a great fan of all your books, but my question is about the Sharing Knife universe. Do you have in your mind a more detailed backstory of how the first malice emerged? And how precise are Dag's ideas about the lives of the old lords? Could you say something more about it? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Iva --

The backstory of the first malice is almost as vague in my mind as it is in the characters. I figure to fill in the details if I ever write a prequel which, I admit, does not seem likely. But it involved the most powerful magics of the old mage-lords, a deal of hubris, and an attempt to pull in something that was Not Of This World. From there, things did NOT go according to plan.

I do believe that the alien-ness of the malices is from that Outside; their evil, all from their human parts or programming.

Dag's people have very limited written records of the Old Days, and some oral traditions more-or-less distorted in the retellings. Their broad outline is more-or-less correct, but there are a lot of missing details.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for the Vorkosigan saga, Memory especially has gotten me through some hard times. Is Lt. Jole,( Aral's military secretary in The Vor Game ), the same character as Gentleman Jole ? Thank you for your time, effort, and artistry.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Jole is the same character -- 23 years later, so "same" is an arguable term. :-)

Ta, L.
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I had a brief moment of panic when I saw an "outline" of the plot for gentleman Jole on wikipedia because there was a whole menage a trois storyline which feels so wrong for Aral and Cordelia. Then I saw someone had fixed it to directly quote you. I feel like the answer is yes, but were Cordelia and Aral monagamous throughout thier relationship?
Lois McMaster Bujold Too early for spoilers, I think, but it is certainly the case that we saw the later Aral and Cordelia mainly through Miles's eyes, which is a peculiarly restricted frame. I can say that Cordelia and Aral loved each other without reserve until death parted them.

Also, don't forget that Cordelia is Betan. Betan /= 21st. C. Middle American, despite her accent. Technology, as usual, creates the ambit of the possible, in culture as in so much else.

So much else, but you'll have to wait for the book for that.

Ta, L.
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Reading Erin Morgenstern's *The Night Circus* with my teenage daughter. Reading aloud increases my admiration for the writer as I feel the careful way she has chosen each word. It's the same with Tolkien or Rowling. I haven't read your books aloud; but when you read chapters in public or I hear the audiobooks, they sound like they are made to be heard. Do you read your own books aloud before a final copy?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Steve!

I don't, but for a while earlier in my career I was in a writer's group who read their offerings aloud to each other, which may have had some long-term effect. And I certainly subvocalize while composing,

The professional narrators of my audio books seem to like them, for what that's worth.

Ta, L.
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I am a new friend and I noticed your interest in mediaeval history. That should not be a surprise after reading your books. Have you ever read "The Book of Margery Kempe: The Autobiography of the Madwoman of God"?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My history reading is erratic, although it does rather accumulate over time. But I haven't read that one, no.

Ta, L.
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Mary, one of our children's librarians, told me that she checked in a summer reading finisher yesterday named Ellie Quinn. Mary asked her if she knew she was named after a science fiction character, and her mother said “Really?” and then proceeded to tell Mary the little sister’s name – Cordelia! Mary was rooting for the third sister to be named Elena, but she turned out to be Emma.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hee. Not the first to name kids or pets after my characters, although in this case it seems to be by chance. I just hope the kids don't hold it against me in later years... the pets are on their own.

Ta, L.
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I just finished "Pendric's Demon." It was very satisfying and that's not something I've found in the last few books I've read. I think the reason I find your work satisfying is not only your world-building, but your characters. They are interesting and complete - even when they don't have bodies! Would you say characterization is something you particularly try to focus on?
Lois McMaster Bujold I can't say that characterization is something I try to focus on... it seems to come "for free" for me. (Referring to a metaphor about writing where every writer has different aspects of the craft that seem to come easily to them, and others they have to work for.) I have to work for plot, and setting, and, argh! names, tech and worldbuilding, and magic systems if extant, theology, politics, architecture and clothing design and so on. But if a character presents him/her/itself as interesting enough to write about in the first place, they seem to come walking onstage already pretty integral. Also, nearly impossible to alter in any arbitrary fashion, even though they grow and change with the story. Mountains are easier to move.

Though they do tend to go through a stage early in their development (and, indeed, later on in the tale) where I keep trying story and backstory on them to see what fits, like a frustrating shopping trip, but that feels more like discovery than invention.

Once I have a character, everything else can be added. Without a character, everything else is useless.

Ta, L.
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I just finished my second reading of Penric's Demon. I loved it! There was just enough enough foreshadowing to make some accurate predictions but not so much that I could guess the ending. Do you have any plans to expand it into a full length novel? It's been so long since the last World of Five Gods book, and I so need another story to read from that particular world.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you enjoyed Pen and Des -- I certainly enjoyed writing them. (And do pass the word -- this work is getting no promotion beyond word of mouth.)

I have no plans to expand this novella as such. It is not impossible that the characters could have further short (although 35k words is not actually "short") adventures someday, a series in miniature, but nothing is in the works at this time. (I am back to being semi-retired for the rest of the summer.)

I really enjoyed getting to write something short, after the prior novel that took three years (though to be fair, a lot of that was life-interruptions.) But for a novella one needs to have just the right idea to fit the length. Short stories and novelettes seem too short to me to get in much character development -- they tend to be more idea-centered snapshots. But novellas are just long enough, elbow room without bloat. Whee!

Ta, L.
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A short question, but I would be happy with a long answer. May you tell something about what kind of spirituality Paladin of souls is inspired by? I ask because it resonates very much with the real life mystics I have read before, from various traditions. I guess I am wondering if these are works you have also read, or it is just some truths in there that are truly universal.
Lois McMaster Bujold The first two Chalion books were written over a decade ago, now, so my recall of their composition is getting vague. I had a life accumulation of occasional church attendance, but more important was probably reading. Some C. S. Lewis, a book by Thomas Merton, something by an Islamic mystic, some readings on Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto, The Confessions of St. Augustine, biographies of St. Ignatius Loyola and that fellow who went off to found the leper colony in Hawaii, Teresa of Avila, and so on. And reading, yes, about real-life mystics, mostly from the Middle Ages in the course of my general historical filter feeding of the era.

The serious mystics across religions do seem to be zeroing in on something similar, and recognize it in each other, though whether it is some subtle universal equivalent to the hiss from the Big Bang, or just the 60-cycle hum of their own biology, I am not sure. (Though I suppose it could be both.)

Ta, l.
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I found a show on Netflix titled "Mushi-shi" and I seem to remember it being discussed on here once in connection with butter bugs? If memory serves, it wasn't available on Netflix at the time, so if that was your blog I was reading I thought I'd let you know : ) if not, please tell me so I can try to figure out which author it was. Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold I have certainly recommended the anime of Mushi-shi. I think I found it first on Netflix, but now own my own copy. (They did a live-action movie of it, too, but the anime is much better. The anime is quite closely based on the original manga.)

No influence on butter bugs, as A Civil Campaign was written in the late 90s, and I didn't find the anime till much later, after Netflix was invented.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Lois. My wife and I just read and enjoyed Penric's Demon. It feels like I just finished the first third of a novel. Do you have any further plans for Penric and Desdemona?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hopes, maybe, plans, not yet. I have characters, I have setting, I have notions, but no suitable plot has yet reported for duty. I think I need to get less busy, to give brain room for something to come up, but that keeps not happening. Too much time spent on servicing old material, lately, though that is part of the necessary business of writing.

Must retire harder...

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm pretty sure Gregor went to the interment as Gregor, and was barely conscious of what he was wearing. I'm also pretty sure his valet put him into whatever was correct, that morning. I don't know if there is an equivalent Imperial uniform to House Blacks. At this last, private stage of things, a civilian suit is also a possibility. It would not have been the gaudy parade red-and-blues, anyway.

Ta, L.
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Do the Vor have accents? Cordelia's accent is described as "flat"--how would you characterise it in terms of the current world (Mid-west American?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Everybody has accents; the Vor are no exception. That should be in the plural, of course, given all the different regions and language groups on the planet. Some accents would be more associated with high status or places of origin than others, and thus aped, and whatever the BBC uses most would tend to spread. Barrayarans don't have quite the mania for placing/pegging each other by their voices as do the Brits, but they come close.

The Vorkosigan family accent runs to something like "British actor doing stage Russian accent".

Betan is closest to American Midwestern, yes.

Ta, L.
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I was pre-ordering "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" and discovered I had somehow missed a new novella. What a wonderful treat! Are you planning to release more short works? It's a different type of story telling and I'd love to see more of it. I'd think that Aral and Cordelia's time on Sergyar would be a great place to explore via short stories and novellas.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you found "Penric's Demon", however inadvertently!

I'm not planning anything at this stage, though I'm open to possibilities. Part of the reason for the Penric tale is that I wanted to explore direct e-placement, which, among other things, has far fewer constraints on length or topic than other modes of publication. I'm certainly counting the experiment a success.

But, really, Penric's tale happened because I wasn't trying to write at all, but rather, had relaxed and kicked back. With my brain less busy, there was space to listen to myself think. (The internet, I observe, is quite willing to keep one's brain frantically busy 24/7.) Also, an idea needs to be of the right weight and length for a novella; too little and there's nothing to say, too long and it turns into a novel, which is not the point of the exercise. I will say, finishing something in a mere three months was a real treat. So, we'll just have to see.

Ta, L.
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By now, there's a lot of telepathic teenagers running around on Athos, and sometimes amok as well. So, what happens then?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, that's a question I plan to leave to readerly speculation. However, if a double-dominant dose of the gene is required for the telepathy to kick in, in standard Mendelian inheritance patterns, it will actually be the second generation after Ethan that starts to show the effects, and then, of course, only if primed with enough tyramine. The very first actives would likely put it down to drunken hallucinations, with a few poor boys wondering if they were going crazy, till word got around.

Ta, L.
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I am waiting impatiently for Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (especially after reading some *intriguing* spoilers about the plot!). But I have not pre-ordered it yet, because the only edition available at this point for pre-order is a hardcover edition. Will this book also be available as an e-book? I have so many dead-tree books my house is in danger of imminent collapse, so I'd prefer to order a digital copy.
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, it will be available as an e-book. First will come the eARC, Advanced Reader's Copy, effectively the same as my galley proofs, which will be for sale off Baen's own website in advance of publication by a couple of months. The usual price for these is $15. The regular, fully corrected e-book will be released no later than simultaneously with the hardcover, I think. (I should probably cross-check this data.)

It's more important for publishers to get accurate early pre-order data for print books than e-books, due to needing to decide on the size of print runs and arrange all with the printing company, for the books to be printed and shipped by the pub date. E-book "print runs" are indefinitely instantly expandable, as long as people don't crash the server...

Ta, L.

Oh, I should add there will be a pre-signed hardcover edition for sale, too, rather like the one for Ivan's book.
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Heard about this real-life soletta in the Italian Alps?http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6189371.stm
Lois McMaster Bujold
I hadn't, but I have heard of similar things. Going right back to pre-electric days exploring, and possibly building, Egyptian tombs using mirror-light.

Ta, L.
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Was there a particular catalyst for turning Ivan from something of a joke (though always a likable/endearing one. Maybe sidekick is a better term) into a hero? I feel that he becomes an aspiration character at the limo fight scene in A Civil Campaign, possibly specifically with the "Vorpatril House" at the end of chapter 17.
Lois McMaster Bujold "Aspiration character" is a new term for me -- thanks! Is it common coin?

No special catalyst, except that his time had come, and Miles was overdue for a rest. I'd had a notion for a story for him before (give him a Cetagandan princess!), which failed to jell. Lots of fan requests for more Ivan fell on the usual politely deaf ears till I had a new idea (give him a Jacksonian mafia princess!), which even recycled a little of the old idea as a bonus, and we were off and running. Or strolling, in Ivan's case.

The most important part of the practice for him was giving him a viewpoint in A Civil Campaign, I think, which he'd never had before, allowing us to explore his hidden shallows.

Ta, L.
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There's a story I don't think I've ever found. In the list of Miles' stories, it's when he's 25. And the blurb says it involves Simon, changing bones for Miles and in a hospital, and foiling a plot against his father. Supposedly, the title is Borders of Infinity, but that story is about a Cetagandan prison camp, according to the collection Miles Errant. Am I missing something?
Lois McMaster Bujold Ah, this is a frequent confusion, engendered by that old Baen timeline, I think.

Back when I was putting together the three Miles novellas for the fix-up collection Borders of Infinity (note the absence of the "The" -- and of quote marks, which signify a short story), Jim Baen asked me to write a frame in which to embed the three tales to make the volume look more like a novel, as collections didn't sell well. Which I dutifully did, making it a sort of little story, because that's what I do. It does not in any way stand alone. I have Miles remembering or telling the three episodes to Illyan while in hospital after a mission, plausible reasons for asking or remembering supplied by the frame.

The three novellas plus the original frame may be found in the collection (or novel) Borders of Infinity, currently available as a direct-placement e-book and in other formats. The frame was dropped when we broke up the novellas to fit in the chronology of the omnibus volumes, as it would have made no sense in that context.

If I had realized back in the 80s how much confusion it would make in the future, I would have titled the collection something very different from the title story! Too late now, so I just have to keep explaining to people.

Ta, L.
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So, I'm a huge fan of your Vorkosigan series, and I can't wait for Gentleman Jole. That siad, one of the bits that intrigues me so much about the series are all the little asides and pieces of Barrayaran history. I know you've said your not interested in writing war stories, but would you ever consider writing something placed before or at the first contact with the galactic community after the Time of Isolation?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out, and nothing is in progress.

I'd like to do some more new things, but I have lately involved myself with the e-book relaunch with the new e-covers, which is going to keep me busy for a month or two more. After that, who knows?

Ta, L.
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Have you ever thought about co-writing a Vorkosigan story, or having another writer pen one with you as an editor, just to, in the words of Gregor, "see what will happen"? If yes, are there any particular authors you'd consider?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not at this time.

I had an official offer to sharecrop from Baen, years and years ago, and turned it down. It just doesn't mesh well with the way I work. Too much is intuitive, too much generated on the fly, too much just-in-time world-building, too much control-freakery. Trying to work with another writer would be a huge communication burden, and all the fun parts would be left out, from my point of view.

Ta, L.
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Is there any chance that we will see life from Aral Alexander/ Helen/ Lizzie/ Taurie's point of view? Or perhaps, since those Vorkosigans would be so privilleged all through life, it might be really fun to see life through the eyes of some little Vorpatrils, especially those who have connections and ambitions, but are forced to grow up on planets far away from the known world. (Looking forward to Gntmn Jole)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out, and nothing is in progress.

Ta, L.
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Hello! You address so many cool things in society and talk about so many different cultures and how they work! Is there any chance of polyamory/polygamy being addressed on any planets in future books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That goes all the way back to The Warrior's Apprentice in 1986, when (admittedly mentioned in passing by Tav Calhoun) Beta Colony's arrangements are indicated to be highly flexible. And there was that poly family in The Sharing Knife. Athos... is in a class by itself. Lots of variety in the Vorkosiverse, although mercenary fleets, naturally, are not much about family formation. Jackson's Whole, anything can happen and does. And then there are the Cetagandans, the ghem indicated to practice polygamy sometimes, the haut deeply mysterious, no idea what their ordinary citizens get up to, and so on and on.

A lot of the stories touch on an exploration of what might happen when sexuality and reproduction are truly technologically separated. Sexuality becomes optional and malleable, and much less fraught, but somebody still has to change the babies' diapers, or they will die. Not everyone needs to have children, but all characters need to have parents -- or some SFnal equivalent, and no cheating by having people raised to adulthood in vats and anyway, who would run the vats? So.

No new books are in process at the moment, so I can't predict what I may like to explore next.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois... I'm asking this question of several writers (some friends, some strangers).... Does small-talk come easily for you? If so, do you think the ability to fill silence in conversation informs your writing at all? If not, do you think being averse to small-talk has anything to do with your taking to the page?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, no. and no, roughly. I am more a listener than a talker, and tend to gravitate to inveterate talkers therefore, who do all the work for me, which in turn doesn't give me much practice at talking.

Ta, L.
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I've been wondering about Barryar during the time of isolation. How much technology did they lose? It seemed that they had started using horses in warfare, and yet they appeared to re-acquire space travel very quickly after the Cetegandan's invaded.
Lois McMaster Bujold By the third generation, they had lost electricity, and were down to wind, water, and muscle power for a time. Loss of tech went hand-in-hand with loss of social cohesion, and came back much the same way. By the last quarter-century before the end of the ToI, they were getting electricity back. There followed about 15 years of very rapid development between the rediscovery and the Cetagandan invasion, half a generation. Development continued throughout the Occupation, in erratic patchy ways. Lots of off-planet imports turbo-boosted things, as well as disrupting them.

Details left as a problem for the student, or Fanficwoman.

Ta L.
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Hello! I wanted to thank you first, you are one of my favourite authors. I discovered that I have trouble introducing miles to new readers. Cordelia's Honor works with women, but they want a Cordelia book after. Warriors Apprentice- a friend said, fun read, but she did not crave for the next book. it really had me thinking. Maybe Memory is a good start for readers who shy away from space opera?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I wouldn't rec starting with Memory, simply because so much of the impact of the book rests on what went before. I don't think there is a sure-fire Vorkosiverse starter-book -- readers' tastes are too different, and the books are not all the same. The series does build by accumulation, and I have tried to make each volume work as a stand-alone, although that has become harder over time.

Borders of Infinity is a sort of sampler-platter, and short, so that might be worth trying.

I could ask readers to chime in, here, though I'm pretty sure it would not result in consensus.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I left that open at the end of CryoBurn. I, Gregor, and Miles are all conscious of the conflict-of-interests issue. I'm sure Miles at least offered his resignation. Gregor might have more-or-less stored it in the refrigerator, holding Miles in reserve for any galactic contretemps that might call for his special expertise, but keeping him out of any Empire-internal cases.

An Auditor's powers are not a 24/7 (or 26.7/7) thing, but activated and deactivated case by case. Jumping one between cases would automatically create a case, however, so, like many things on Barrayar, it has ambiguities that only Barrayarans seem to readily parse.

Ta, L.
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I've noticed some Japanese elements in Barrayaran culture (the two swords, some of their attitude towards their ancestors), but only a couple Asian names. How extensive is that cultural influence, and how did it get so submerged while remaining so important?
Lois McMaster Bujold The influence of Japan is more structural, on the authorial level, than internal in terms of fictional founder population. (Though the 50,000 Firsters were undoubtedly more racially mixed than most readers seem to realize, drawn from four different kind-of-European Earth regions 200 or more years from "now".) But Japanese history gives a worked example of cultural isolation and forcible rediscovery that is most evocative, psychologically and politically, when thinking about SFnal lost-colony scenarios. Useful stuff.

Reading rec: A Daughter of the Samurai (1925) by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto.

Ta, L.
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I always find the names chosen for all characters so marvellous and fitting to each occasion. where do you find them or from what sources do you make them up / create them? Penric, Ingray, etc, just lovely!
Lois McMaster Bujold Names are always a burden to me. When working in a made-up universe like Chalion or the Wide Green World, I often brainstorm potential name lists in advance of the story, so that when a new character pops onstage I don't come to a dead stop for three days trying to figure out his/her/its name. I have a prefab list of dozens, and just run down it till one pops out as feeling right for that individual. This also allows me to create a more uniform sense of language/name groups and so on. (Taking a region on a map, chopping all the names into syllables, and recombining them can lend a subliminal sense of language/culture unity to a name list.) In working in the Vorkosiverse, I am very happy to now live in the age of Wikipedia, where I can pull up lists of authentic ethnic Old Earth names at a mouse-click. Beats the heck out of the days when all I had was the local telephone directory and some syllable-scrambling.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)
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Hi Lois, I just went EXTREMELY short of sleep because I bought the eARC yesterday, so congrats (LOVED the book.) My question is: Are you a hockey fan? If so, is it possible that your team is the Caps? I just noticed two characters' names (Kuznetsov and Aucoin) are current and former players.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, I got the names off ethnic/country-of-origin name lists, probably Wikipedia, though I sometimes find other sources.

The coincidence is amusing, however.

Ta, L.
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In your Miles books you often talk about how vat-grown meat makes it ethical to eat meat. What dietary restrictions do you observe in your life?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no dietary restrictions, although in recent years I've had to give up coffee :-( because it gives me indigestion.

For a while, I was trying to do dinners for a group which included a vegetarian, a person on the Atkins diet, and a person who did not like fish. I think I finally had them brown-bag it...

There are some classic old SF stories about vat meat versus dietary shibboleths, which the commenters can probably chime in with.

Ta, L.
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Are you planning on writing more books in the "World of the Five Gods"? I've just discovered this wonderful series and you've left a few loaded pistols on the mantle that need to covered.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not sure where that series is going at this time. My original plan for five-books-five-gods seems to have run aground, as the template proved too rigid; the recent novella "Penric's Demon" was in part an experiment to see if I could shake something loose in a new direction.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I loved Penric's Demon and I wondered do you plan on writing more novellas? And if yes, which of the worlds you created would you prefer to explore? Or a new one altogether? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold I would like to do more with Penric, but no suitable plot has reported for duty yet. Doing something short was definitely a blast. I think it's time for something new, but I don't know what yet. I still have about a month of work left to get the Vorkosiverse e-re-issue all out, plus proofing and 1100 tip sheets to sign for Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen; after that, my eyes will need a rest, and after that, we'll see.

Ta, L.
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I wish there was a way to search your answers, because you may have responded to this: but Ker Dubauer in Diplomatic Immunity has the same last name as that unfortunate young man in Shards of Honor (who allowed Cordelia and Aral to have their first experience assisting a profoundly challenged person). I bet you had a reason. Also: Where was the ba intending to take those 1000 infants, and how care for them?
Lois McMaster Bujold Due to founder-effect, Dubauer is a common name on Beta Colony (like Smith); the ba picked it because it seemed bland and unmemorable.

I do not know the ba's final planned destination, but it must have had the equivalent of an orphanage lined up waiting there. The prospective employees were doubtless peeved when their employer did not show up, stiffing them.

Ta, L.
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Does this resemble a Quaddie performance? Also, Russian - coincidence? https://www.facebook.com/flystationteam/videos/906208996083048/
Lois McMaster Bujold Huh! A wind tunnel, I take it? Interesting.

Yes, a bit like a quaddie ballet, though the quaddies could afford to move in a slower and more controlled fashion.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I do not know if Leo and Silver had kids, but it is not ruled out. They would have needed biotech aid. Quaddie names were for a long time one unique name per quaddie, which, as the population expanded, got to be a stretch before they went to adding the numbers to allow duplication.

Yes, Delia was named after Cordelia; the latter is probably her actual legal name.

5 almost 6, 11 just turned from 10, a few months slipped in somewhere, variants in planetary year length... many retcons are feasible.

I don't know if Ivan and Tej have had kids "yet", nor where he is posted, nor, indeed, what his "new career" really turned out to be. Ivan presently exists in an electron cloud of potential, position unknown

Nikki did not choose to be adopted, and did choose to retain (and perhaps redeem) his family name. In his immediate Vorsoisson line, he is the senior male, being only son of the only son to have offspring, and possibly not too many brothers/uncles upstream.

Baen doesn't seem to be doing library placements at present, though HarperCollins is, and has my fantasies for them up in many libraries' e-systems. Blackstone Audio also has good library placement. I would like to get some of my direct-placement/self-published Vorkosigan e-book backlist up, at the very least a couple of titles to test the waters, but have not so far succeeded in doing so. I'm not sure which one or two would be best to experiment with.

Ta, L.
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Finished "The Hallowed Haunt" today and am starting to reread it. Your Five Deity theology fascinates me. I was particularly taken with the idea the thumb, which represents The Bastard God touches all five fingers. Did you develop this theology completely from your own creative imagination, or was it a partial not to the five elements of the Ancient Chinese world view? Much else of your theology delighted me.
Lois McMaster Bujold While acquaintance with a number of different real-world religions informed the Chalion books, I think the Five Gods are original, both in underpinnings and in a lot of details. Some ideas are stolen and modified, such as the rather check-mark-shaped signing of the Five over the five theological points (four if one is Quadrene) versus the Catholic signing of the Cross, which is also a mnemonic.

The ancient Chinese probably had less influence than several other sources. Otherwise, I used lots of natural elements; the hand, the seasons, human familial relationships, and so on. Five was also attractive because it resisted, to a degree, dualism, which I think is a way of looking at the world that tends to create a lot of ill.

The two religions in The Hallowed Hunt had some inspiration from the clash between early Christianity and the Germanic, Saxon, and Nordic pagan religions of the so-called Dark Ages. Great Audar's career borrows elements from Charlemagne, for example. (Well, steals, perhaps, since I have no intention of giving them back.)

Ta, L.
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What's more important for you in your books: plot movement or the moral issues to ponder for the reader? Thanks
Lois McMaster Bujold Neither; what I care about most is the character study. The plot only exists to reveal new things to me about the characters, to supply a worthwhile road for their spiritual journeys. Ditto the setting, really. The readers are merely invited along for the ride. What they get out of it all will be to a large and non-controllable (and, I have observed, wildly varied) extent up to them.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold This answer contains spoilers for the book, but really only the first chapter. (Free sample chapters, 1 - 4, are presently to be found here: http://www.baenebooks.com/p-2892-gent... )

Yes, I "knew" what Jole was (although not yet his first name) back when I first wrote The Vor Game in 1989, though he existed then more as a cloud of potential than as a known position. That potential expanded after I wrote Memory, circa 1995, which packed Aral and Cordelia off to Sergyar and incidentally extended Aral's narrative life by a decade. For the next 4 volumes the series followed Miles, who, you may have noticed, is a trifle self-centered, and thus so are his books.

Jole might have continued to exist merely as my private amusement if I hadn't been drawn back to write first CryoBurn and then Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, during which my speculations about him solidified, and then invited his story. The first notes hit actual paper in early 2011, when I was stalled on Ivan's book for various internal and external reasons. I then picked up Ivan's tale after a radical revamping and finished it, so I didn't get around to writing the first scene of GJ&RQ(which became the second scene of the actual book) in early 2012. (2/26/2012, my computer files tells me. Huh.) Reader demand to know what happened after CryoBurn also fed into this, as I gradually realized that the aftermath that really interested me was not Miles's, but Cordelia's.

Writing Jole's story did its usual trick of creating him, or at least, making him visible to me, in greater detail, and he finally achieved the character-density you see by the end of the book. (Not to mention that first name.)

Ta, L.
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I'm afraid to ask a question which must have been asked before, but here we go: For the Vorkosigan saga, did you decide for specific reasons to imagine a science-fi world without any aliens, or does the world came naturally to your mind already formed like that, with genetically altered humans but no aliens at all? Or is it the reflect of a personal conviction about science-fi credibility?
Lois McMaster Bujold Aliens vs. no-aliens is an old bifurcation in space opera. The formative works I was reading back in the 60s offered both models. A lot of the aliens tended to be just people in costume, and not just on Star Trek. Two models of the latter choice for world building were of course Asimov, who had humans-only, and the less-well-known but amazing writer Cordwainer Smith, who had extensive bioengineering of both human and animals, and who was much the bigger influence on me.

By the time I began writing, science was beginning to catch up with the bioengineered future Smith had envisioned, and the "aliens are us" notion seemed even more plausible. By the time I'd finished the first couple of volumes of my not-planned-in-advance series, I'd pretty much committed to the bioengineered-humans model, and that if there were any advanced aliens in our galaxy (which is a big place not only in space but in time -- two such species could miss each other not only by light years but by millions of years) they wouldn't show up in in my characters' lifetimes.

Ta, L.
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This might seem like a silly question, but I wonder if you could describe how you picture loose-fitting Komarran trousers? As I've reread the series, they vacillate in my mind between modern day wide-legged trousers, to ones fitted at the ankle like harem pants, to much more voluminous bottoms like hakama or riding skirts. How do you imagine them?
Lois McMaster Bujold Fashion being what it is, the answer is probably "all of the above". Palazzo pants, certainly, but also every variation, as befitting the season, the venue, or the need to sell more trousers.

Ta, L.
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When is your publisher for Penric's Demon making the epub version available in Canada? Kobo.com is the biggest. Right now, I'd have to buy it from Amazon (Kindle format) or from Itunes. B&N won't sell their ebooks to Candian clients. I have loved all of your books and I can't wait to read this one. But I really don't want to have to curl up with my computer because I was forced to use kindle software.
Lois McMaster Bujold Still no plans for Kobo at this time, sorry.

It's short; your computer might not be too onerous. Or, it will be coming out sometime next year from Subterranean Press as a chapbook-sized hardcover, so there's that.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! I'm really trying to take a crack at writing. I seem to find inspiration in everything these days. I literally can't have a conversation with someone or go for a walk without wanting to capture the experience in a story. But I've found that I'm extremely uncomfortable with my voice on the page. Everything feels too autobiographical, and preachy, and ultimately unimportant. Have you ever experienced this? :)
Lois McMaster Bujold Good luck on the writing! A very practical font of advice may be found on Pat Wrede's blog, here:

http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Go back to the beginning and read in small bites, or, if you want the fast-forward version, there's this:

http://www.amazon.com/Wrede-Writing-T...

In general, my characters seem to have their own voices and opinions, to which mine are necessarily subordinate. I owe them the most honesty I can muster, and everything I know (at the time.) I find this more liberating than uncomfortable, although that may be some species of displacement. I have to forget the audience and my careful social-self while I am writing, although readers certainly come to the forefront of my thoughts when it's time for marketing, or for watching their reactions to find out what I've written.

I think Pat has some posts in the book I just rec'd, or certainly on her blog, on the problems of keeping the internal editor from crippling the internal writer. I am also reminded of a complaint from long-time Analog editor Stan Schmidt, frustrated about writers coming up to him and explaining that they didn't send him this or that tale because "it didn't seem like an Analog story." "It's not your job to reject stories for my magazine -- it's mine!"

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I was curious as to wether you have ever been approached about writing any Star Wars novels? Would that be something you would be interested in? I often wondered how the process would work, would you be given a storyline and go with that, obviously sticking to certain histories within the canon. Apologies if you have been asked this many times which i suspect you have. Thank you for your time.
Lois McMaster Bujold Not Star Wars. I was approached once for Star Trek novels, long ago, but for me that starship had sailed. They should have asked me in 1968... :-)

I believe all the big franchises have some sort of story bibles these days. (In the early days, when all this was first being invented, things were more free-form.) But it's not something I'm interested in -- I want to write my own stories -- so I've never investigated further.

My friend Pat Wrede was approached through her agent and contracted to write the middle-school novelizations of the last 3 Star Wars movies, back when. But she was under legal obligation not to talk about it, at the time. But those were a lot more constrained than the side novels, as she was working from "live" scripts (some of them still wriggling.)

Ta, L.
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Why isn't Gregor named Ezar, after his grandfather?
Lois McMaster Bujold For all we know, he might be; Ezar Gregor, styled Gregor, the way Aral Alexander chooses to be Alex.

Or he might have some other name combo -- perhaps Ezar never liked his name, and chose not to have it inflicted on his grandson, preferring to honor someone else. Or maybe Serg wouldn't have it. The possibilities are many.

The naming custom isn't all that strict, in reality.

Ta, L.
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Gotta ask, Is Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen (Vorkosigan Saga) going to have a kindle available to release?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, Baen will be releasing their e-edition no later, I believe, than the hardcover release. I'll post when it goes live. (And, of course, the eARC is out now, though it will be going away when the final arrives.)

There will also be a signed limited edition, about which, I am reminded, I should make a post.

Ta, L.
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This is less a question and more an observation. In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, when ImpSec is sinking, Illyan comments that the people running out of the building probably grew up in earthquake country. Having grown up in earthquake country, the people who would be running out of a shaking building are everyone else. EQ country people won't even notice quakes that make non-EQ country people run out.?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, but Vorbarr Sultana is not earthquake country; such events there would be unusual and alarming even to earthquake veterans. Nonstandard details such as the plumbing and other connections ripping out of the walls as the building went down would likely also be attention-grabbers.

As the building is windowless, its inhabitants wouldn't have been treated to the sight of the earth rising up past their windows, but it has plenty of other monitoring to give alarm. Until that, too, was buried or borked as events magisterially proceeded.

Ta, L.
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I am confused. Amazon lists "Falling Free" as the first Vorkosigan, while Goodreads lists "Shards of Honour". I like reading series in "real time" order. Where should I start?
Lois McMaster Bujold Start with Shards of Honor, but circle back and pick up Falling Free sometime before you get to Diplomatic Immunity.

That's enough for going on with, but if you want a profusion of detail, my own reading-rec order is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L.
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One thing I value very much in books is if they make me laugh or smile, but I'm very rarely amused by the overtly comic. Perhaps one of the reasons I love your books so much is that they can be deeply insightful to comic. So ... I am in need of something to cheer me up. Can you recommend anything? Books by preference, but movies okay too. Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold This seems a good question to throw open to the readers at large -- more suggestions in the comments, folks?

Depending on my mood, I have been fond of the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer. Middle Pratchett is always good -- very early Pratchett hasn't found its voice yet, late Pratchett sometimes tends to more dark. Jennifer Crusie for contemporary (or, by now, then-contemporary) romantic comedy. Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series isn't comedy, but narrator Peter Grant's voice and views are pretty amusing at times. Megan Whalen Turner's YA fantasy series starting with The Thief is also very re-readable (try to avoid spoilers, going in.)

I also like animation and anime -- pretty much all the Pixar and Dreamworks offerings, Miyazaki of course; other, quirkier things. Paprika is a fave feature-length film, Mushi-shi, while it is not comedy -- it might be "gentle horror" -- a favorite series. The series "The Wallflower" is... not readily describable.

Some good Shakespeare comedy on film includes the 1997 production of Twelfth Night starring Helena Bonham Carter, and the nicely goofy 2000 production of Love's Labour's Lost done as a 1930s Hollywood musical.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold That story is, if not dead, in cryostorage, very cold at present. I won't say I'll never get back to it, but it needs to go somewhere other than where it had stalled, and the unblocking idea shows no sign of occurring. So, probably best not to hope for it.

Ta, L.
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Are you excited about the new Star Wars movie? Planning to see it in theaters? What do you think of Star Wars as a universe/mythology/saga of stories in general? Thanks for your books, they've given me hours of meaningful entertainment and inspired a few great potential name ideas for children and/or pets (I really want a Persian cat named Simon Ilyan).
Lois McMaster Bujold I am barely aware of the new SW movie, I'm afraid. I loved the first trilogy, was hugely disappointed by the second -- for that much money, why couldn't they have bought a good script? -- and never got into the books.

More for you all...

Ta, L. (I am waiting for Minions to appear on Netflix, however.)
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Regarding Barrayar's Time Of Isolation, if I've got the timeline about right: 0-90 years, still had a dwindling tech base; 100-400, Bloody Centuries, regression to Agricultural Age; 400-450, Unification under the Emperor and canonization of the Vor caste; 450-600, Golden Age of the Vor; ~600 years, End of the ToI; ~625, Cetagandan Invasion; ~645, Aral born, ~650, Barrayar freed. Roughly on target?
Lois McMaster Bujold I've never worked out the timeline in detail (and if I ever had, the paper I'd have written it on would be long gone by now anyway.) But, sure, roughly right. I put the Ceta invasion ~15 years after the end of the ToI, and it lasted ~ 20 years. I'd put Dorca's unification later, since he survived right up to and through most of the Occupation; although he might have been merely the emperor to finish, rather than start and finish, that political process. I've never established when Aral was born in relation to the end of the Cetas, but, if not before, soon after. Have no idea what you mean by "canonization of the Vor caste", although equipping them with and/or shooting them from cannons would occur toward the middle-to-end of the ToI.

Ta, L.
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I am so happy you are answering these questions. I have a new one. What inspired you to work in the science fiction and fantasy genre instead of say the romance genre?
Lois McMaster Bujold Imprinting, mainly, I expect. These were the sorts of stories I grew up loving in my teens. (1960s vintage, plus any earlier work lingering on local library shelves.) I didn't come to reading romances or mysteries till later, in my 20s, though they were both inboard as interests by the time I started writing for professional publication in my early 30s. Also, because of my reading familiarity with the F&SF genres, and with conventions, I had at least a vague clue how to go about submitting work, and where, which I lacked for other genres.

Mostly, though, F&SF are universal receivers, like certain blood types; they can absorb any other genre's plots, tropes, styles, and ideas. So an SF writer does not, at least in theory, have to give up any literary possibilities, or restrict their creative range.

Ta, L.
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I asked you a while ago if Illyan was modeled after Illya Kuryakin. Your answer was that Illya was definitely an inspiration for the character. Since I would say this makes you a fan of Man from U.N.C.L.E., I was wondering if you saw the movie and, if so, what you thought of it? BTW, I love Illyan. Wonder why?
Lois McMaster Bujold Which movie? I saw a made-for-TV remake with the original cast some years back, which wasn't all bad. If there is a new remake, I haven't seen it yet.

Also, not 14 now, which makes a difference. Dear God, has it been fifty years...?

A huge number of people of my generation were fans of that show; not least, I suppose, because there were far fewer choices of things to watch back then, which tended to concentrate and enlarge the audiences.

Ta, L.
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2 quick ones - Aurelia named after Aral? Simone after Simon?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes and yes.

:-), L.
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I SO enjoy your Vorkosigan series and have especially loved following Miles's storyline. Is there any chance he will ever be promoted to admiral and command a Barrayan fleet like his father?
Lois McMaster Bujold I doubt it. Miles's life has gone in rather different directions, by age 43, than he envisioned at age 17 or even 27. As do most of ours...

He has found other ways to serve, not less honorable.

Ta, L.
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Do you pronounce Alys as "Alice", "uhh-lease" or some other option? Thanks for the great writing!
Lois McMaster Bujold "Alice" more-or-less, but with not so sharp a sound as the "c" compels... Accent on the first syllable. "AL-ease" is just a tad too softened, but something like that.

Ta, L.
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With each new Vorkosigan book, I look for an update on Ellie Quinn and reports of sons on Athos. Now that ~twenty years have passed in the saga might there be a future reference?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing planned in that direction at this time. I'm afraid you're just going to have to use your imagination...

These books could spawn fractal sequels, but there is no way I could write them all.

Ta, L.
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Since you enjoy and recommend the anime Mushi-shi, I'm curious if there are other anime you enjoy. Do you have any other favorites? Some recent fantasy series like "Yona of the Dawn" (2014), "The Heroic Legend of Arslan" (2015) and "Snow White with the Red Hair" (2015) I found particularly enjoyable.
Lois McMaster Bujold Answered here: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/2...

I just recently watched The Tale of Princess Kaguya and thought it very fine. I can also highly rec The Story of Saiunkoku, and have also liked the work of CLAMP.

I haven't had time to watch for a while, but I am always interested in recs for the better-grade stuff. (I don't have time to sort through the drek myself.)

(A quick check finds none of your recs currently on Netflix, my source, tho' they do offer a 1992 edition of Arslan. Any relation?)

Ta, L.
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Thank you for all your books ... please don't stop writing! Are you cogitating on anything now?
Lois McMaster Bujold You are welcome!

Nothing new to report at this time, although with a Minnesota winter coming up, who knows? The launch of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen in just six weeks is going to be an enormous distraction, though only for a while.

Ta, L.
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An sf reader for >50 of my 62 years, I had until recently only heard of Miles. I'm now 3 books in (Warrior's Apprentice), & hooked. Work of this quality is why I read sf. Thank you for this great pleasure. I have minutes ago learned of Michel Petrucciani, a French jazz pianist of astonishing musicianship & refinement. He suffered from brittle bones, & was short of stature. Were you aware of his work before Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you have found, and are enjoying, the books!

No, I was not aware of the jazz pianist. Quite a few short, interesting people have been brought to my attention by readers since Miles first appeared, but none of them are sources.

Ta, L.
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I note that Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is available for pre-order on Amazon (done), but no Kindle version. Is a Kindle version planned? I haven't quite given up on "real" books (I still get hardcovers from my favorite authors, among whom you are included) but my preferred method of reading these days is on my iPad. I don't process verbal communication very well, so audiobooks are of no use to me.
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, I was told the e-version is supposed to go up at the time of its release. I do not know why there is not a page or pre-order option for the e-book. So, Real Soon Now, but not quite yet. (The e-version will also be available at www.baenebooks.com , when the eARC comes down.)

A bit later: I asked of Baen, and got this expansion:

"The ebooks do not go on sale on Amazon as pre-orders. They are all put up on the 16th of the month prior to publication.

It is available now as a partial at Baen Ebooks, so your readers can even get started if they want. The entire download will become available on January 16.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-2893-gent...

All ebooks purchased at Baen Ebooks are perfectly capable of being read on the Kindle. There are various ways to do it, but the easiest by far is just to use the book’s sales page to email it to your Kindle. I am a Kindle guy, and I do this all the time. There are instructions there on the page when you sign in with a Baen Ebooks account. It’s very easy to do.

Otherwise, the ebook will be for sale January 16, 2016 on Amazon and other ebook sources including iBooks, Kobo, B&N, etc."

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms McMaster Bujold, do you know when "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" will be translate in French ? If you can double check this information, it would be great please :) i received your last book during christmass, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and i just finish it . It was really good ! thank you ! Mathieu From France
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Mathieu --

I have not yet received an offer from a French publisher for the book, so, not soon. (It would have to be licensed, then translated, then go through the publication process -- this usually takes a year or more.) Translations are a "buyer's market", thus not up to me.

bests, Lois.
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Dear Ms McMaster Bujold, is there any information about Croatian translation of "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen"? I can't find anything on usual publisher's website and sadly I remember waiting quite a while for "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance".
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Ines --

We have not yet had an offer from any Croatian publisher for Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, so, no news. You are probably in for another long wait, I'm afraid.

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms McMaster Bujold, we plan to hold the fancy-dress ball in the beginning of May. It will be Barrayaran Ball. We want to create decorations for the hall. Could you tell us, what could be shown in the State Emblem of of Barrayar and the coat of arms of family Vorbarra? At least some of these objects are depicted on the coat of arms) Thank you very much in advance. Your Russian fans
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Tatyana --

Those are the sorts of details I normally leave each reader to imagine for themselves, so you are free to devise whatever pleases you. The great advantage of this is that fans can have all the choices, not just one.

Have fun!

Ta, Lois.
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It is repeatedly mentioned in the books that there are sixty Counts, but by my count (no pun intended) only two dozen or so are named so far. Do you have in your head a full list of the Vor family names? Also, are there any Vor families that don't have a Countship, i.e., that became Vor after the formation of the Council of Counts? And what about the terraforming of South Continent? Will new Districts be added?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I don't have a full list of all Vor names on Barrayar, Counts or otherwise. (Nor do I have a 30-volume leather-bound copy of the Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage, though it is, I suppose, a testament to my worldbuilding that so many people seem to imagine I do.) There are more Vor family names than there are countships. There has also been historical turnover of clans in countships, for all the possible reasons.

I have never established what's going on with the government structure of South Continent, except that it is not countships, new or old. When last heard from they were directly held Imperial (not Count Vorbarra) lands, presumably divided up as needed for local government.

The terraforming of S. Continent continues as people get to it. It will be a generations-long project.

There have to be more interesting big islands and island chains as well, not mentioned yet... With examples before us of Hawaii, Iceland, and New Zealand, it rather seems to depend on what the plate tectonics are doing; which could be more or less active than Earth's.

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms. McMaster Bujold, Thank you so much for answering all these questions! Of the Vorkosigan books, A Civil Campaign is especially delightful because it's a departure from the tone of the series -- I always think of it as a comedy of manners after lots of (wonderful) space opera, military fiction, family drama, etc. Did you conceive of it this way? Are there other modes that you'd like to write in but haven't?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'd wanted to write a Barrayaran regency romance ever since I awoke to the fact that Barrayar had this perfectly good regency lying around. Aral Vorkosigan's regency was long over by the time this book came along, but why should that stop the parade? A lot of other elements went into the book, not least Shakespearean comedy... somewhere around is a long fannish discussion of them, A Reader's Companion to A Civil Campaign. Aha, free pdf is here -- http://dendarii.com/ACC-Companion.pdf -- warning, large file.

At this point, I could write in any mode I wanted, so long as I liked it enough to have internalized it. One reader-reviewer even described Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen as an SF-mainstream crossover, which may be a bit of a stretch, but not for me to say. Whatever the mode, it would have to be a story I relished enough to slog through the bog of actually writing.

Ta, L.
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I know you visited and enjoyed Croatia, and you must know that you have a serious number of loyal fans from there (myself, my mother, and my grandmother included), and name Oliver Jole is a combination of two Croatian folk singers names, Oliver Dragojevic, and "popularni Jole"... They are pretty awful if you ask me, but I can't help thinking that maybe you have a funny story about that?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope; I had never heard of them before you told us just now.

Jole came out of my head when I first invented the character, back in about 1989. He acquired his first name four or five years ago, when I began to develop the ideas for his book, which I created in a common way by generating a list of possible names and staring at it till his name presented itself from the pack.

He came really close to being Perry, a nickname for Perrin; dodged that bullet... Oliver suits him much better.

Ta, L.
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How relieved are you that Baen is letting you design the cover for Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, after so many years of Baen covers?
Lois McMaster Bujold
More anxious than relieved. Granted that the cover is not embarrassing, and is actually thematically emblematic of the story, and doesn't give readers anything to complain about having "got wrong", but will it sell?

What people claim they want, and what they actually buy, may be less congruent than imagined.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for all the laughs and tears from your many books. I see from this thread that nothing new will be added to the Vorkosigan universe, so I look forward to your new directions. Can you tell us about your systems as an author - what is your work life like and how do you create your new contexts? One of the aspects I love to you as a writer is your variety and depth - any secrets to share as a writer?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, gosh. No secrets, no secret handshakes. Persons looking for practical writing advice might do well to start with Pat Wrede's blog or her book Wrede on Writing.

As for me, there are two books that discourse at length on the topics of how I write: The Vorkosigan Companion, edited by Lillian Stewart Carl and John Helfers, and my own Sidelines: Talks and Essays, which is an e-book collection of most of my nonfiction writings of the past three decades, which are generally about writing. (I shall not retype them all here...)

My work life has changed over the years as my life has changed -- how I operated in the 80s was different from the 90s, and again from the 00s, and is now very different again as I work out what semi-retirement means to me.

Ta, L.
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(I keep bumping into the character limit!) After finishing The Hallowed Hunt, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I couldn't help but wonder how Ingrey and Ijada got along. Wencel had, at one point, offered to teach Ingrey if he'd but come visit him at his home, where he kept his library. Novel events went quite differently, of course. Is that knowledge something Ingrey and Ijada will ever find?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good question; I 'd have to write a story to learn the answer. It is among other things unknown how much Horseriver was lying about that library, using it to explain his knowledge actually acquired by living through his times. It's also unknown if he left whatever he possessed behind, or destroyed it, although the progression of the story suggests the former. I'd think the Temple would be first in line to seize anything interesting, posthumously. I. & I. might get to see it later...

Ta, L.
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I am so glad we are getting more of your books on Audible! I was afraid we wouldn't get any more. Can you please tell me if you are planning on writing more of the Vorkosigan or Chalion books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad to have my work on audio as well!

Nothing is in the planning stage at this point. (Well, just now there are a herd of PR chores in support of the book launch stampeding toward me.)

Ta, L.
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My question is about Artie Mayhew. I am reading "Shards of Honor", again, and as usual I start to wonder if the Pilot Officer Mayhew that 'helps' Cordelia is indeed Artie? Have read all your books but absolute favorite is Vorkosigan Saga.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Arde and the pilot Cordelia suborned/hijacked are intended to be the same -- one feels that his unfortunate encounter with Cordelia was the beginning of the slippery career slope that ended with the poor schmuck in the heap where Miles found him.

I don't totally insist on the interpretation, but really why not? Parsimony and all that.

Ta, L.
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I know it's just over a 12 hour flight, but ever thought of coming to New Zealand to give a reading? You could go to Australia too. Although it is hot and has many snakes, actually if memory serves 7 or 8 of the top killers in the world. Aotearoa, land of the long white cloud, and the only thing you have to worry about is sheep.
Lois McMaster Bujold I had a wonderful trip to NZ in 2003 for the national SF convention in Auckland, and was able to tack on a 10-day tour of South Island, and I've also had a great trip to Australia, to Perth for Swancon... 23, iirc. I'd love to go back, but I'm afraid the airplane ride would be excruciating given all my wonderful new arthritis issues. I can't sleep on planes; coming back from Perth to Minneapolis entailed being awake for 36 hours. You know all those people who say they wish they had a 48-hour day? No, really, they don't.

Hot actually sounds good right about now, though. Minus-17 F. predicted here tonight.

Ta, L.
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I must say that the Vorkosigan saga is my favorite work of yours! I have reread the books so many times and the Civil Campaign is definitely the one I always recommend to my friends - it is amazing. I would like to ask whether you plan to write another book for the Vorkosigans or the lovely cousin Vorpatril? (and I really hope so). Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold Assuming you already know about Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, I can only answer with what is becoming my usual mantra: nothing is planned, nothing is in progress, and nothing is ruled out.

Ta, L.
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What are your thoughts on fanfiction/fanart (and other not-for-profit creative endeavors produced by your fans)? :)
Lois McMaster Bujold Go for it; have fun; don't send it to me.

As I was writing fanfic possibly before the term was invented (and so were a lot of other people), any other answer would be quite hypocritical.

I once wrote up a little essay on the topic, good grief, ten years back now; a bit out of date but in parts still pertinent.

http://www.dendarii.com/fanfic.html

This essay was written just a few years pre-Kindle and the e-books marketing revolution, which is a whole 'nother conversation and then some. (The link at the end of the essay to the old City Pages interview is long dead.)


Ta, L.
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I'm probably a little late in reading the Chalion series. Your writing style in those books is exactly what I've been looking for. Character development for Cazaril and Ista is wonderful. I want to read all my other fave characters out in the world written with your touch, from your perspective. I like how you see the universe. Any possibility of a new Chalion in the future? P.S. The Bastard is my secret favorite.
Lois McMaster Bujold It's unclear if you've found The Hallowed Hunt yet, or the novella "Penric's Demon", both set in the same world but in different time periods and with completely different casts of characters (except the gods.)

Yeah, I think most everyone likes a trickster figure, especially including storytellers.

My The Sharing Knife tetralogy has a deliberately different "voice", as suited to its world, but it is more fantasy.

I have no news on future work at this time. No promises, nothing in progress, nothing ruled out.

Ta, L.
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I do have Hallowed Hunt, but haven't read it yet. I will soon! I don't usually like the trickster sort. Most of the time they annoy me. That's why I was hesitant to say I liked him, wondering what type of person I was to resonate with the Bastard? I cried while reading Caz's story, just because. Thanks for the recommendations. I wanted to reach out and say thank you for your books.
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome!

Ingrey is a rather different sort of protagonist that Caz or Ista, younger and grouchier. But I feel he has his own surly charms.

Ta, L.
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Did you know that Sergei Lukyanenko, the author of the "Night Watch" urban fantasy series, is a fan? In his recent SF novel "The Genome", he references your Vorkosigan series not once but twice. At one point the main character stands in a customs line in some spaceport behind a tall guy named Ivan and a misbehaving hunchbacked dwarf named Miles...
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, I hadn't caught that one. Fun!

Ta, L.
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I gather that there is a nod to Lady Peter Wimsey (Harriet Vane) in Ekaterine Vorvayne. But is there a reverse homage (as far as you know) when Harriet makes it a major project to herself create a garden in the footprint or outline of the burnt-out wing of Duke's Denver (in Jill Paton Walsh's "The Attenbury Emeralds")?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I haven't read The Attenbury Emeralds, so I have no idea. (You may be asking the wrong author.) The British have a general mania for gardens, though, so I don't see any necessary connection.

Ta, L.
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Hi, my turn to ask a question so food. Can you remember what an "Oil Cake" is supposed to be ? Mountains of Mourning breakfast AND after Caz's breakfast before collecting Laundry in Curse of Chalion. The dictionary doesn't help and nor do the recipe pages give a likely answer. Could be just a cake' fried in oil I suppose ?
Lois McMaster Bujold It's basically some species of doughnut, either bread or cake, bakery or street-food version. Funnel cakes from the State Fair are yet another type. Local variations in the recipes may be expected to be numberless.

Ta, L.
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The Vorkosigan books are some of my all-time favorite reads. Heroes, espionage, betrayals.... I actually cried several times. Thank you so very much. Highly recommended. Which book was your personal fave?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Having just re-copy-edited all 17 of them for the new e-covers last summer, I should have an answer for this, but it's still a surprisingly difficult frequently asked question. But I suppose Memory and A Civil Campaign are the front runners.

Ta, L.
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Would you consider revisiting the world of your Chalion Series?
Lois McMaster Bujold Have you found my 2015 novella "Penric's Demon" yet? (It's available as an e-book in the Kindle, Nook, and iBook stores, and now also as an audiobook.)

Aside from that, nothing is promised and nothing is ruled out.

Ta, L.
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How is Tsipis pronounced, because it seems like a really unfortunate name...?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's a real-world name (you can Google it) , so it likely has some official pronunciation somewhere, but I pronounce it "sipis" but with a little touch of the tongue to the back of the incisors just before the s.

Ta, L.
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I love your books! I want to be the strong intelligent characters that you portray. Their perception and understanding of the world around them is so intelligent and easy to understand. Do you have anything from a very unintelligent protagonist (making wrong interpretations of the world, making incorrect judgement, repeatedly)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In general, SFnal audiences do not care for stupid protagonists, unless it's a tragedy like Flowers for Algernon. After all, the tacit understanding is that readers are expected to identify with the protagonists, and if there's one thing the SF crowd valorizes above all others, it's brains. They also don't much care for stupid antagonists. So that role is pretty much relegated to side characters.

That's not to say even smart characters can't make mistakes or have biases; they just do it on a higher and trickier level. When a smart man sets out to fool himself, he has to be really convincing. I believe Michael Shermer has some whole books on this subject.

The other authorial trick is of course to make the protagonist young and inexperienced, in which case the story arc must include them becoming less so. Inexperience can be fixed; stupidity, almost by definition, can't, since it pretty much consists of not learning better.

There is also a psychological mechanism whereby people defend themselves from information or learning that threatens their self-identity; also not the same thing as unintelligent since it happens at every IQ level.

Ta, L.
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Is the young pilot Artie Mathew (sp?) that Cordelia dupes in Shards of Honor the same as the one Miles "helps" in Warriors Apprentice? Does Miles realize it the same guy his mom conned to get a ride to Escobar? Does Argue recognize Miles as Cordelia's son. If not right away, when does the truth come out? Surely by Miles' wedding?? I know much stays in background but can you clarify this a bit.
Lois McMaster Bujold The two Mayhews are optionally the same fellow -- a probability that I do not insist upon. If the two are one, both the issues you mention got worked out sometime, well before Miles's wedding, but I do not know when or how.

Ta, L.
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I wonder if you have ever dreamed about any of your characters? Have they or settings/places from your books ever "showed up" in a dream, in any context? Any examples of a character from the Vorkosigan saga interacting with a character from the 5 God series? Do you recall ever having a dream that helped you figure out a plot point or given you aid in your writing? Thank you so much for considering my question.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think they may have shown up a few times, but very seldom. I don't remember my dreams well, except for a few I'd rather forget; most of them seem to be about travel traumas. Or home repair traumas. I have spent more time in insanely snarled airports in dreams than in my waking life.

Alas, my dreams have never been any help at all in figuring out my stories, except that if I don't get enough sleep (very common these days with chronic insomnia) I can't write. Or think. Or move, much.

Which makes me wonder, does anybody else have useful dreams about my characters?

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold The notion of Jole's character and relationships existed ever since he popped onstage in The Vor Game, which I wrote back in 1989. But that wasn't what the books I was writing then were about. So the ideas rode along through time in a potential reservoir of story that I dub "Schrodinger's Cat Carrier". No telling whether a story-cat is alive or dead till I open the box to actually write it.

Then there followed those several years when I was writing the seven fantasies for HarperCollins, and didn't think I'd ever get back to the Vorkosiverse at all. But then I wrote Cryoburn at a special request from Toni Weisskopf following Jim Baen's death, and then Ivan's book because it seemed like it would be fun. And by that time, 2011 or so, I realized the cat was definitely alive, and yowling to get out. So, to continue the physics metaphor, it was both preexisting and slotted in; both a wave and a particle.

Ta, L.
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O Honored Favorite Author: I just wanted to show you what my friend got me for Christmas this year: http://cecilyjeanne.tumblr.com/post/138516867218 You're now up on my office wall for all time! I got her to read the Vorkosigan books a couple years ago and it's been so fun to squee with her and see these new covers out in the wild. (Here's the customary question mark needed for this ask. -->?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ah, excellent!

I think Ron Miller was very proud of those covers, and pleased to get the chance to do something outside of his usual range. (Plus, there's always the chance that some visitor to your office will see them and ask, "What's this...?")

Ta, L.
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I feel like I've seen the answer somewhere but can't find it now. How is "Jole" pronounced -- one syllable or two? And I really appreciate this exploration of alternate ways of getting into a relationship.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Jole rhymes with prole. Or pole, role, etc.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen this? I am seeing more and more of your book technology in real life! come on, uterine replicators! http://www.thegoodfoodinstitute.org/memphis-meats-cultured-meat-company-profiled
Lois McMaster Bujold
I hadn't seen that one, but reports of attempts at the tech have popped up from time to time for years. I hope one of them finally works!

I have occasionally reflected that the future we get will not be the best of all possibles, but merely the one people are willing to pay for.

Ta, L.
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Was Princess Kareen also a Vorbarra by birth, or only by marriage to Prince Serg?
Lois McMaster Bujold
By marriage. No, I don't know her maiden VorName.

Ta, L.
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Has it been especially thrilling recently as more and more of the futuristic concepts you've used are becoming closer and closer to reality? Or did you choose those concepts precisely because you felt they were most likely to happen/had the most practical application? (plot reasons aside, of course) Apropos of Cordelia's latest book coming out this week, VAT-GROWN MEAT!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y027yLT2QY0
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'd say gratifying rather than thrilling. (I do hope some of my more horrific hypothetical inventions do NOT come to pass!) I show what I do mainly for plot reasons; after that, practicality and likelihood do come into play.

Ta, L.
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Another of your imagination coming true, vat meat by the pound. Do you ever tries to keep track of them? http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/biotech-company-growing-meatballs-lab-180958051/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20160205-daily-responsive&spMailingID=24658352&spUserID=NzQwNDU3OTcxODcS1&spJobID=741036112&spReportId=NzQxMDM2MTEyS0
Lois McMaster Bujold
I should point out, vat meat has been a science fiction staple for decades; it's not original to me. There have been a number of attempts at it reported in the news, but I don't think the production and marketing are ready to compete, yet.

Ta, L.
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So, in GJRQ, what are Miles's top three? And which is the one he thinks Cordelia doesn't know about?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, one of them was certainly getting back too late from Kibou-danii to see Aral again, and say all those last things he wanted to say. (And, his night thought whispers, if only I had been there at that moment maybe I might have saved him somehow...) The death of Bothari is certainly one, which Cordelia does know. The death of the pilot officer may be up there; Miles may believe she doesn't know about it. I think she might. Miles's career-destroying lie to Simon Illyan is high on the list, though possibly not the highest. Going after Mark on Jackson's Whole , or at least the way he did it. Really, he's spoiled for choice, and readers can pretty much fill it in as they please. Not to mention the option of off-stage events we haven't seen.

Ta, L.
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I know that you've sworn off cons for the foreseeable future, but with BSFS's 50th bash coming up, with all former GoH's invited back, were you at least tempted? One of the highlights of my life was seeing you in 2004.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Which con goes with those initials? I'm guessing Bay (Area) SF, but it's all a blur by now.

No, not tempted. Fans are great, but travel hurts. I have chronic nightmares about airports. (Although seldom airplanes, as such. Apparently, I am not afraid of flying, but am of the TSA.)

Ta, L.
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I'm in the middle of rereading The Warrior's Apprentice now. I was struck when Elena tells Miles that Baz has made up his own story about who Miles is--that he's essentially exiled for being a mutie and his younger brother has ursurped his place. Minus the exile, that's pretty close to Ser Galen's plot. Did you know that already when you wrote The Warrior's Apprentice?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, The Warrior's Apprentice was, hm, three books and three years before Brothers in Arms. I don't think one can draw a connection, there. Publicly, of course, Mark was supposed to have been perceived as "Miles goes nuts", not as "Miles's unexpected younger brother".

Ta, L.
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I just realized my son (who is almost 10) shares an unusual name with one of your characters, Ser Galen. As many times as I've reread those books I'm shocked it took me this long to make that connection. Other than the historical significance, I thought the only other place I had seen it before was the character Richard Galen from STTNG (there's a bit of a family in-joke about the latter). Where did you get the name?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Galen is a fairly common name, going back to Roman times, where it was attached to a famous physician and medical writer. For Komarrans, I wanted Italian-flavored names, to evoke Venice.

Megan Whalen Turner has a physician minor character named Galen somewhere in her YA fantasy series starting with The Thief, which your son might be ready for in a year or so. I expect she was also thinking of the noted Roman.

Ta, L.
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On a scale of one to Miles with a bloodless victory, how smug are you feeling about bringing the series to this point ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do not understand what this question is asking for. Try again?

Ta, L.
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Hello, I have kind of a silly question. So, my fiancee and I are planning our wedding, and we have decided to do a "Barrayar" wedding. =) So what we are wondering is could you maybe give us a hint or a more detailed description of the fashion, as you envisioned it? I see it more Austro-Hungarian courtly, and Lucija more Victorian England. All with strong military influence off course. We were just wondering. =) TY
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is the sort of detail I leave up to the readers' imaginations, although my own description of Barrayaran traditional fashions runs to "Ruritanian". As The Prisoner of Zenda was set in a fictional middle European country and written by an Englishman, both of your ideas for sources have merit.

Or I suppose, you could go in Betan sarongs... :-) Your climate may not permit.

Good luck, and congratulations!

Ta, L.
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I don't know if you keep a file of "things Lois predicted", but this looks like it belongs in there: http://www.sciencealert.com/a-five-dimensional-black-hole-could-break-general-relativity-say-physicists Five-space math and faster than light travel? Who'd have thought.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. I'd think it would be more along the lines of "even a stopped clock is right twice a day", but, very interesting link!

Ta, L.
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In the Vorkosigan Saga, all the (lead) characters end up in happy, heterosexual, harmonious... satisfying relationships. Even Bel, whom Miles thought of as more man than woman, ends up with a quadi woman. In a world that is otherwise so believable, it makes it all feel less realistic, untrue to imperfect human nature. What prompted you to write them this way? How much did you consider this aspect of the stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)
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Hi Lois, I bought Penric's Demon from Amazon - a kindle edition published by Spectrum and sold by Amazon. Worryingly someone has just posted this on my review: Marc Wilson says: This is a stolen book, published without the author's permission and very likely illegally scanned from an eARC (electronic Advanced Reading Copy).. Can you clarify, please. Is there a problem with this?
Lois McMaster Bujold The KINDLE edition from Spectrum is legit, and you are fine with it. The audio edition from Blackstone and Audible is also properly licensed.

However, earlier this month (Feb. 2016) some scammer put out a shoddy print-on-demand edition through Amazon's self-publishing arm, CreateSpace, which is just the e-book grepped and put through the system. This PoD paper edition is stolen. I don't know how many copies the scammers have managed to shift so far.

My agent is working on getting attention from Amazon to get it taken down, so I expect it to disappear in due course, with luck before too many more readers are taken in.

Later this year, there will be a legitimate paper edition from Subterranean Press, which will be a very nice hardcover chapbook -- I just saw a preview of the cover art, which is striking. More announcements on that as things get finalized.

Meanwhile, please do not purchase the CreateSpace print-on-demand version. If you have bought it in error, Amazon does make returns easy (I've returned a couple of book purchases myself, for printing glitches.) "I found out this edition was stolen" is a good reason for a return, I would think. Send it back and recover your money.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Insofar and as long as the two remain separate, what they are going to have is a perpetual argument. What practical compromises they eventually work out are at this point unknown.

(Pen's noticing of Rusillin was not attraction, but worried jealousy, btw. He was unconsciously afraid Des might like the more powerful man better.)

Demons don't have a sex; Des is no more whatever-sexual than "she" is horse-sual or lion-sual. One might argue that demons perform gender, I suppose. But all these 12 layers of experience are imprinted upon her, and simultaneously available to her multiplex personality. That said, demons do have an appetite for experiencing the physical through their human (or animal) hosts.

It is unknown if a demon could end up, however temporarily, in a tree or plant. That would certainly be their last choice, if so.

:-), L.
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No question, really, just a quick comment. I first read "The Weatherman" in Analog magazine some thirty-odd years ago and just finished GJ&RQ last week. In between, you've provided me countless hours of reading pleasure. While I hope to read many, many, (is a third "many" too many?) more of your writings for years to come, I also want to say "thank you" for all the great work you've done. Ta!
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are most welcome! The support of readers throughout the years has been what has allowed me to have a career.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois. I just finished Gentleman Jole and I was delighted by it. I really appreciate you developing the characters to new stages of life, though I admit I miss the more exciting times when they were young. Please accept my heartfelt Thank you for your creative proccess and many good moments spent reading your work. I hope you are planning to keep on writing Miles Books along these lines in the following years?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for the kind words!

Judging from the book's reviews, about 20% of my readers would cry "Noes!" to your last question. But in fact, I don't know what will interest me next. I think I'm due for a long stint of general cultural filter-feeding, in order to find out.

bests, Lois.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This literary universe goes off in all directions, as far as the eye can see... I, alas, do not stretch that far. I have at this time no idea what I'm going to write next, if anything; right now I think I'm due for new input, but such can only go into my brain so fast before memory formation can't keep up.

When I look at the knowledge glut available to me here-and-now, I feel as though I've been taken into a giant grocery store and told I have to eat all the food on the shelves. Just... can't... do it...

Ta, L.
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Hi. I am one of your fans that live south of the Twin Cities. I have been hoping to go to one of your book signings for a while, but I don't see a listing for them. I have "just missed" your last 2 around here. Do you have a list published or could you tell me where you are going to be soon? Thank you. Am a big fan of your Vorkosigan series. Miles reminds me of a younger version of a Navy officer I used to work
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hi Carol --

No, I don't have any more formal signings scheduled at this time. (Hence no current listing, it being a null set.) If I acquire any, I'll post the info on my Goodreads blog.

For readers who just want signed copies or, with some extra waiting, signed and personalized, Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis keeps most of my titles signed in stock.

Ta, L.
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I love your books; your turn of phrase is always a delight, and your character-driven sci-fi and fantasy, in all of their various sub-genre forms, is amazing. Since Goodreads won't accept stated compliments (it wants a question mark): So, how do you feel about cosplay? I'm planning a Cetagandan ghem-Lieutenant for CONvergence and Gaylaxicon this year. Your non-specific but evocative descriptions are a great boon!
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you like my work!

Do all the cosplay, or other fanac, you want -- just don't ask me to design anything... :-)

(There has been a great deal of Vorkosiverse and other costuming done over time -- people may have some pictures up online. Feel free to share links below.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This was off-stage; nothing ever written. In the same bag as the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant, I'm afraid.

Ta, L.
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What does the Chef Recommend with regards to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen fitting into a story arc? Would someone who has already read (or re-read) the Vorkosigan Saga refresh on Cordelia books, Miles books, both, or neither?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am the person least qualified to answer this, I suspect. A recent reviewer suggested the two Cordelia books followed by Gentleman Jole would make a good trilogy, and I concur, whether as refreshment or first-read. Prior references to Jole are scattered in The Vor Game, Cryoburn (brief -- four words -- but extremely significant, if one thinks about it), and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, but I'm not sure they're necessary.

But -- I say again, probably fruitlessly -- Gentleman Jole is also readable as a stand-alone, complete in this kit, batteries included. A reader doesn't have to have read any other Vorkosigan book, or, indeed, any other Bujold book, to read this one.

(The two reasons to turn aside are if said new reader is planning to read the others, and doesn't want spoilers (although there would still be plenty of surprises), or if the reader is one of those strongly averse to finding romance in their SF.)

So, short version: stand-alone, or the Cordelia Trilogy.

Ta, L.
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What are the demographics of your biggest fans? Obviously it must vary by novel, but there's probably a strong center of fans who are parents or of parenting age, given how family (and dynamics thereof) is a recurring theme in your work. Indeed, one of the top questions on Goodreads is about your family. Your portrayal of family dynamics makes your stories powerful as well as fresh in the SF market, in my opinion.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't actually know the answer to this question. I've certainly seen feedback from almost every conceivable F&SF-reading demographic, but I don't know what proportions they fall in. I've had fan mail from readers aged 11 to 84.

Family, and domesticity generally, tend very much to be spurned in these genres, certainly as positive portrayals or central subjects. I have a theory that this has its roots in SF-as-bildungsroman, where the primary psychological work of the protagonist (and of the identifying reader) is of separation from the family in order to achieve adult autonomy. Romance is the psychological opposite, the work of recreating the family, hence the often-seen antagonism between the two modes. So is romance or the private sphere felt as a threat to that autonomy, rather than its fruition? Good question for a paper, I think. (Not written by me.)

So, yeah, in my search for story ideas that aren't the same as the stories everyone else is writing, these themes recognizing the domestic are certainly under-explored ground.

Mind you, my original thinking was not so developed. It ran more to something like, "It seems as if every other hero or heroine is an orphan. Let's give my guy a family he can't so narrative-conveniently escape, and then see what happens..."

Ta, L.
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As a new fan of yours, I thank you for your wonderful novels! As a new mother, I greatly appreciated your treatment of childbirth in Barrayar - it was refreshingly realistic for the genre, even down to the infant breastfeeding shortly after delivery. This detail lead to some curiosity about uterine replicators, however. Do those who make use of the replicators ever breastfeed? Lactation-inducing drugs, perhaps?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I expect lactation in the Vorkosiverse is a matter of choice; the hormones etc. could certainly be made to sit up and behave if personal lactation was wanted (by any gender, actually), with the tech shown. As yet another alternative, vat-created human breast milk would also be feasible. Different places and times would pursue different fads. In all, more choices, more conscious decisions for the poor beleaguered parent.

(I have had occasion to reflect that the female mammalian body is actually a device for filtering nutrition from the environment through to the next generation, both pre- and postpartum. Evolution, so strange...)

Ta, L.
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You may have had this question before, but here goes: this wonderful garden at the Viceroy's palace which Ekatherin has designed, is it made out of Sergyaran native plants or imported plants? If the plants are imported, how to keep them from spreading out into the Sergyaran countryside? And if the plants originate from Sergyar, how did Ekatherin know which ones to use and so on, seeing as the planet is "brand new"?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am no gardener myself, but we may assume it was a mix of local native and imported plants -- the planet, while new, has still had 40 years for people to find some things that work. People were probably transplanting the things they liked to look at to the places they wanted to look within 15 minutes of arrival (and making a few mistakes, too.) I expect she gave thought to not letting invasive species loose. (Well, apart from her fellow humans.)

The Gridgrad area was a newer local ecosystem for settlement, so would take a bit more research, but even there, there were people there before her.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Discussed at length in this interview:

https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/...

The short answer is "Yes," albeit in a tentative fashion.

Glad you enjoyed the book/s!

Ta, L.
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Which one of your own novels (Fantasy or Science Fiction) would YOU recommend to someone as a starting point? I simply cannot seem to pick one book to get started...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, if I'm speaking to prospective readers one-on-one, I usually ask them a few questions about their reading preferences, and take them into account. Do they prefer fantasy or SF? Love or loathe romance tropes? Like mysteries? War stories? Coming-of-age tales, or older heroes? Prefer male or female protagonists? Want a long series or a stand-alone? Are they spoiler sensitive or don't care? Etc.

Long general answer is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Short answer is Shards of Honor for the SF, The Curse of Chalion for fantasy, The Sharing Knife, Vol. 1: Beguilement for fantasy/romance, or The Spirit Ring for a stand-alone with a YA vibe. That cuts it down to 4; flip a coin twice if nothing jumps out at you. Some of these books have been around for a long time, and I hope will continue to be so. They'll wait for you to catch up. The only wrong choice would be not to read any.

Good luck!

Ta, L.
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Have you considered (or more to the point would you consider offering an ebook boxed set/s of the Vorkosiverse? I read many but not all of them years ago, and find myself wishing I could fill in the blanks. After finishing your latest (fantastic btw) I realized I'd love to just reread the series. I'd be very interested in an ebook box set or two with those spiffy new covers you showed recently.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No such plans at this time.

I'm not sure I actually see the point of e-boxed sets, when all the e-titles of a series are equally and simultaneously e-available. For paper books, boxed sets circumvent book vendors' maddening habit of not having all the books, or the earlier books, available on the shelves simultaneously, so that anyone's attention that is caught, say, by Book #4 is thwarted from starting at the beginning and so doesn't start at all. E-vendors, with their infinite virtual shelf space, don't have that problem in the first place, thankfully.

So any reader can fill in the blanks any time, in any order, a la carte.

E-boxed sets, which are in effect e-omnibuses, have the opposite problem of readers complaining that they'd bought such-and-such a title previously, and why should they have to pay for it twice, or the worse one of mistaking the omnibus for a new title, ditto. I think it's safer just to put all the books out as coherently as possible (hence the new e-cover treatments), and let readers choose for themselves.

For reading order and the Did-I-get-them-all? questions, there's this:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Everyone please feel free to pass this link along.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Another job for Fanficwoman, but if one posits Ma Kosti was no older than about 50 when we first meet her, she could easily have a 20-year career at VK House before she started to slow down too much, or even more if she spent most of her later time directing and teaching her minions. Since being a Ma Kosti minion would in due course have been recognized as a great way to launch a high-level cooking career in Vorbarr Sultana, minions would not be in short supply.

Cooking show vids would indeed not be out of the question. She's a shrewd woman and doing well, but wise enough not to give up the actual cooking, which is her art, for money management, which is a mere necessary chore. But, really any woman with four kids and some unknown number of grandchildren would have no trouble finding ways to dispose of excess money, or having it disposed of for her.

I think she ends up with a quite balanced life.

Ta, L.
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Will there be another Sharing Knife Book? -- Fawn and Dag are two of my favorite literary characters.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no plans for such at this time.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Coincidence, I believe. Although I did read a pile of the Rex Stout books decades ago, I don't remember either of those. The Duronas were just two of several flower and bird names in the clan.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! My sister and I love your books so much! We feel like the extended Vorkosigan family are our friends! I had the delight to meet Tal Danino, who is almost Cetegandan! He creates genetically engineered bacteria that phosphoresce in a synchronized way. It reminds me so much of the tree frogs that sing in chords! I recommend him to you! Do you know of his work?
Lois McMaster Bujold He sounds interesting -- has he written any pop sci on a level that would be accessible to laypersons (such as me)?

Ta, L.
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I've loved your books since I discovered a ragged copy of "Brothers In Arms" in a used book store. Having read the latest, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and enjoyed it, I found I couldn't place a "literary reference" you meant as an injoke for your readers -"the dog who sleeps alone at night". What is the source?
Lois McMaster Bujold "The dog who did nothing in the night time" is (a bit garbled by by the time it gets to Fyodor and Jole) a famous quote from the Sherlock Holmes story "Silver Blaze". To quote from memory, so possibly inexact:

SH: I would draw your attention, Watson, to the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.

JW: But the dog did nothing in the nighttime!

SH: That was the curious incident.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I first picked up your books when my dad introduced me to the series with Warrior's Apprentice. Since then I've devoured everything you've written, in both sci-fi and fantasy. I find General Piotr's back story incredibly fascinating. Were there ever plans for a prequel involving his fight against the Cetagandans?
Lois McMaster Bujold That story has always been backstory. I never had plans to expand it, aside from the bit I added in Gentlemen Jole and the Red Queen during the conversation on the visit to the Prince Serg, which was more about history, and a comment on how our picture of the world changes and becomes less simple as we learn more about it, which was a running theme through that whole book. I have so far only seen one review which understood the full implications of that scene, though.

I've done a couple of in-series prequels with Miles. (Barrayar doesn't quite count because about the first third was written as part of the initial draft of Shards of Honor, then set aside for several years.) I find them rather constraining, as instead of just fitting into the series at one end, they have to fit at both ends, which restricts the development of the story-line and especially the growth of the characters. And then there's the question of why characters in later books written earlier never think about the events of the prequel, which restricts things even further.

This would be less of an issue with a deep backstory story, I suppose. But I am currently quite tired of war stories. And the bookstore shelves are crammed with them already. There is no shortage; I don't need to spend my limited time making more of the same. Books used to be able to be about something else, I'm pretty sure. I'd prefer to explore in that direction, or some path even less traveled.

Ta, L.
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I just read in Jo Walton's review of Falling Free that it was originally going to be the first volume of a trilogy. If this is true, would you care to comment on why that didn't happen, and what you had planned for the rest of the trilogy? This is not a plea for "more of the same", just a curiousity about what might have been. I've been a fan since the 80s and have been pretty happy about reading whatever write
Lois McMaster Bujold Mostly, I think, Miles happened. I had some vague plans for more, but the next thing I tackled was Brothers in Arms, and after that one thing led to another. By the time I reached a point where I might circle back and pick it up again, the material had gone pretty cold, and I wanted to do something new. (Which I eventually did, with The Curse of Chalion.) Sending Miles and Ekaterin to Quaddiespace in Diplomatic Immunity was my substitute, and gave me as much closure as I wanted.

Properly, following the Escape from Pharaoh should have come the 40 Years in the Wilderness followed by the Conquest of Caanan, i.e., the passage to the future Quaddiespace, and the initial building of the asteroid colony. But that spaceship has sailed.

Looking back, I think I picked my projects not by plot or even character, but by themes I found psychologically interesting or resonant in any given year. Or whatever book I write wraps around that resonance as it goes, and allows it to embody itself. (It's far from a linear process.)

Ta, L.
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The planet Komarr is being terraformed. I dream of a future when we terraform Mars. Recently, it's occurred to me the Moon might be a better choice. Mars is so cold, and the Moon is just the right distance from the Sun. Since we found ice in a moon crater, we've got a start on the essential ingredient. Maybe we could snag a comet for additional water. Do you think humans might do this in the future?
Lois McMaster Bujold Insufficient gravity to hold a free atmosphere is a problem for both worlds, the moon more than Mars. Antarctica would be easier than either, but the seasonal affective disorders would be fierce. (Although Antarctica once had dinosaurs, so if global warming keeps going, who knows.) Colonies on either the moon or Mars would probably have to have enclosed arcologies like Komarr, for starters. The future is a long time; I wouldn't rule out anything, but I don't see it happening in the near future, for reasons of economics, biology, and physics.

Ta, L.
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Was Shards of Honor ever a Star Trek fanfic? (I am asking this myself because it keeps coming up out on the Net, and I need a handy place, bookmarked, to post the answer so I don't have to keep typing it over and over (and over and over) again. Anyone is welcome to link or repost the answer in full.)
Lois McMaster Bujold I keep bashing this in the head, but the same rumor keeps surfacing; I have concluded that the fanfic tale is the story people want to be true. And there are more of them than there are of me, so.

There is just enough of a grain of truth under this that I can't deny it outright, but the real story is rather more complex.

The Vorkosiverse actually got its proto-start in the very first novelette that I wrote, "Dreamweaver's Dilemma", back in late 1982. It never sold at the time. (Later, it was printed in the Boskone SF convention souvenir collection Dreamweaver's Dilemma when I was GoH there in the mid-90's, and again in my little e-collection Proto Zoa http://www.amazon.com/Proto-Zoa-Lois-... ) Beta Colony and the Wormhole Nexus generally got its (somewhat off-stage) start in that tale, plus the history of jump ships, the initial colonization diaspora from Earth, etc. Barrayar did not yet exist.

Scratching around for what to write next, in December of 1982, I bethought me of a TOS scenario that I had made up to entertain myself while driving to work at OSU Hospitals at least five years prior. Which was, indeed, a female Federation officer and a Klingon captain (pre-ridged-rubber-heads; these were the old-style fuzzy-eyebrows morph) down on a hostile wilderness planet who had to cooperate to trek I-don't-remember-where for I-don't-remember-why; the mental movie was never written down. There was no more to it. Whether or not this long-vanished train of thought qualifies as "fanfic" seems to me a question for debate. By someone other than me.

Walking around behind the notion of Klingons to the actual historical Earth militaristic cultures upon which they were based, I considered both European and Asian models, especially the samurai. A key work under this (besides a 3-volume history of early Japan I'd read back-when, and a history of the Meiji era) was A Daughter of the Samurai (1928) by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto, a memoir of a woman who was born just prior to the Meiji era as the daughter of a rural two-sword samurai, and who ended teaching Japanese at an eastern American university in the 1920's. The notion of a planet with that sort of abrupt generational socio-political transition came from that reading. Lost colonies being an SF staple, one with such a traumatic rediscovery yielded my Barrayar pretty quickly. It slotted very neatly into my wormhole diaspora background from the novelette, Aral's boots appeared in the mud in front of Cordelia's nose, and the rest was, so to speak, future history.

Note that the rest of the series, not to mention the rest of that book, was not yet in my mind: just getting to the end of My First Novel quite filled my plate. (Working title Mirrors, final title Shards of Honor (1986))

You may copy and quote this in full if you wish.

Ta, L.
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The CEO of a biotech group just announced that she conducted an anti-aging therapy on herself, and of course I immediately thought of Lily Durona... Have you seen this yet? http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-claim-they-ve-completed-the-first-successful-gene-therapy-against-human-ageing
Lois McMaster Bujold Fascinating!

It does sound quite like a fountain of middle-age... too late for me, belike. It will of course take many years to prove itself, but it sounds as if a lot of people are seriously working on it.

Ta, L.
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I may be late in saying so, but congratulations on another Hugo award nod! I enjoyed Penric's Demon greatly & I wholeheartedly support it being nominated this year. Best wishes always. (? needed for posting purposes)
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you!

Ta, L.
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I love the interaction between Miles and his cousin, Ivan. Is there ANY chance that we'll get another story with those two together again?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing is planned at this time. (So, no breath-holding. Don't want my readers to asphyxiate.)

Ta,L.
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Any chance of a chance of book about Miles' children? Helen is an interesting character!
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing in the works at this time.

Ta, L.
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A quick thanks for all the lovely stories, particularly those from the Vorkosigan saga, that've kept me enthralled the last few years. Ran through "Dreamweaver's Dilemna" yesterday and I had to ask: Have you read Asimov's "Dreaming is a Private Thing" by any chance? If so, was that an inspiration, conscious or otherwise? Two stories that go in very different directions, obviously, but the core idea is similar.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, I haven't, as far as I remember, read that Asimov story. There are similar tropes kicking around the genre, I'm sure.

Ta, L.
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I'm sure you've seen this, but yet another prediction (and/or plot device) heading towards reality for you: Artificial Wombs Just Got One Step Closer to Reality http://gizmodo.com/scientists-are-one-step-closer-to-building-artificial-w-1774890495 Pretty wild, eh?
Lois McMaster Bujold I thought back in 1985 that this should be do-able -- and probably for less money than it took to put a man on the moon, etc.

Ta, L.
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I was reading this article: http://www.newsweek.com/star-trek-10-actors-who-could-play-next-captain-cbs-new-series-456231?rx=us I hit Olivia Colman and I thought to myself, "Cordelia". I'm usually the sort of reader who doesn't closely visualize characters, but she just struck me. What do you think?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hm, not bad. I had in mind the young Vanessa Redgrave for Cordelia's looks, back when.

https://www.google.com/search?q=vanes...

But, of course, time marches on.

Ta, L.
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I have yet one more question about "Might there be a story someday about X character?" I feel like Tej has so much more to say. I'd love to see what life is like from her point of view once they *do* make it back to Barrayar. Eventually. (And I suppose Ivan's too, the big goof.)
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, the Vorkosigan series does seem to have this property that I've dubbed "spawning fractal sequels". Any number of my minor (and major) characters seem to have lives that extend off the edges of the pages, and implied stories of their own. I do not have the ability to spawn fractal clones of myself to write them, alas. (And if I did, the clones might just as well prefer to go off and do something else altogether; see, "Mark".) So, no hope there. I'm afraid you all will have to use your own imaginations for these.

Ta, L.
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There are four writers that I reread and reread because their use of language sparkles for me in a special way. Those four are yourself, Patrick O'Brian, Terry Pratchett, and Vladimir Nabokov. In general would you say that your sentences just flow while you are engaged with the imagination, or do you spend a lot of time reworking your sentences to strike the exact note? LOL probably a question with no answer.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, that's some fine and varied company!

How much I work on my sentences consciously at the micro-level varies. Some scenes just flow out, others have to be squeezed. I spend a lot more time these days (because I have more time, and working paperless makes it easier) combing through my paragraphs winkling out small glitches like word-echoes or less-than-ideal sentence construction or syntax, or improving word-choices. (Sometimes, I get it right the first time :-) Sometimes I have to use bracketing fire to get my range.)

But mostly I'm just recording the movie in my head, "I write what I see", well, with added sensory data to the visual when I think of it. No movie, no words, though, as there is nothing yet to describe. So my writing sessions tend to come in little bursts of ideation, captured in notes, as I work out the progress of each scene (or half-scene.)

My more detailed creation tends to come in scene-chunks, that being about all my brain can handle at one time. Paragraphs are interesting in their own right, structurally and otherwise, and can be almost like little prose-poems. Big blocks of text or just three words, or one, depending on the work they're being called on to do. Every paragraph should move forward internally, placing the reader at a slightly different place at the end than they were at the beginning. (Or sometimes a very different place, see, three words.)

Ta, L.
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I always liked your characters word fencing, especially Mileses and Ivans. The battle of wits, that is a magic of its own and your books have it plenty. I really for more stories with Miles, Ivan and their wifes. So is there one in making either in Vorkosigan or Challion universe? Please, say yes, pretty please. Your books are addictive.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you've enjoyed the books!

Nothing new is in the works at this time for the Vorksosiverse. I should have some Penric news to mention on my blog in the near future, though.

Ta, L.
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Is is weird that I've listened to Shards of Honor on Audible so many times I can actually quote it verbatim the same way I do with Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope? Never mind, don't answer that...
Lois McMaster Bujold OK, I won't...

:-), L.
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Is "Horizon" the last of the Sharing Knife series? Do you plan on continuing the story? Or, is there another series to follow it?
Lois McMaster Bujold That's all in that series/world for now.

Ta, L.
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I saw a snippet on You Tube of you reading a chapter of a work in progress with Miles and Ekaterin and Enrique visiting Vorkosigan Vashnoi to check on the "Rad-bugs." Are you still working on that? I'd love to find out what Miles saw in the bushes.
Lois McMaster Bujold That one died in the middle, alas. I'm not sure if it will ever be resurrected. (This is the great disadvantage of public readings or discussion of my works that haven't been at least finished in first draft. Lesson to me.) Good set-up, but after that... sigh.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, which character (from all your books) strayed away the most from what you planned for him/her? Which one developed in a most surprising way? Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold Er... all of them?

For simple question, this one is surprisingly hard to answer. For one thing, I would have to remember all my books at the same time. But as a rule of thumb, characters who have the most books over which to develop will have the most stage-time to deliver surprises. Miles, as so often, takes the lead here. (Although, for a one-book character, Wencel Horseriver was pretty obstreperous.)

Ta, L.
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Just rereading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance and I keep wondering : Is it Ivan Xav like "have" or like "save"? Or something else? My mother once said that no matter how a name is spelled, it's pronounced the way the owner pronounces it. And he is in your head.
Lois McMaster Bujold I pronounce it like "have", for all that it is probably a truncation of Xavier which would go with "save". The Great Barrayaran Vowel Shift, or something...

Ta, L.
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Have you ever been writing a scene and felt that it would be greatly enhanced if the reader was listening to a certain song at the time? If so, any particular scenes and songs as an example? Big fan of your SF work, it's been a great inspiration to me!
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I can't listen to anything and read (or write) at the same time, so no. That said, music has occasionally been an inspiration or aid to my imagination. While I was writing The Sharing Knife, the songs of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer were a boost.

Other things at random. Since my kids moved out, I've not been as much exposed to new music, so I'm rather out of touch. I don't drive enough to get much in the car, either. (Also the hearing loss in my right ear combined with the road noise (combined, not infrequently, with unclear recordings or delivery of lyrics) makes it an aggravating frustration to even try.)

Ta, L.
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Is Aral (Vor)kosigan's name a nod to Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, or just a delightful coincidence? I want you to know that you've given me many, many happy hours spent reading your books and musing on favorite scenes in daydreams. Thank you!!
Lois McMaster Bujold No, no relation to the astronauts -- in fact, I don't see the connection. I picked it for the vaguely Russian sound -- Aral Sea, after all -- and because I liked it.

I'm glad you are enjoying my work!

Ta, L.
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Is it too soon to ask what you are working on now?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not too soon to ask, just too soon to answer.

I'd like to do more with Penric and Desdemona, but am currently suffering a combination of choice-paralysis and trying to makes bricks without straw, i.e., I need to do more research reading. This may take some time, as the phrase goes.

Ta, L.
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Do you plan to write a sequel to the Ivan book?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not at this time.

Ta, L.
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I'm re-reading Borders of Infinity right now, and I was wondering how you came up with the idea of the dome?
Lois McMaster Bujold You do realize, I wrote that tale back in 1986, and I can't actually remember what I had for breakfast last week...

That said, my first notes for the story envisioned a camp rather more like the ones I'd seen in WWII movies. I certainly wanted something more SFnal; not sure when I made the switch-over, but it was pretty early in the notes stage, before I'd started actual composition. Force domes, walls, whatever, had been tossed into my VK story mix before then, so it was just a matter of scaling up.

That plus, as an introvert who likes solitude, I could imagine nothing more dire than being trapped somewhere with a crowd of 10,000 people and not being able to get away from them to be by myself. (And no books, argh.) Miles dealt with it rather better than I would have.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, you just said in an answer that as an introvert, you would have hated being under the dome, but that Miles did okay. Does that mean he's an extrovert? And while we're on the topic of personalities, can you tell us what your and his Hogwarts houses are? Or Myers-Briggs type, if you prefer that?
Lois McMaster Bujold Can't do Hogwarts or Myers-Briggs, sorry. You all are welcome to have a go at figuring out Miles. (Although Slytherin is likely a strong contender for him.)

Yes, I think Miles is an extrovert, energized rather than drained by engagement with other people. He can deal perfectly well with solitude for short stretches, but then he needs action. I am the reverse.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen this tweet from Ben Aaronovitch (from July 2nd)? Ben Aaronovitch ‏@Ben_Aaronovitch You know you've been reading too much Bujold when you start muttering 'idiot boy' to yourself to motivate yourself into action.
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh. No, I hadn't (I don't twit) but Aaronovitch and I do have a sort of mutual literary admiration society going, here. So, good-oh.

Ta, L.
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I just finished reading "Penric and the Shaman." Thank you. I enjoy both Pen and Des very much. I did notice something that interests me though. Nowhere in either Penric story or "Hallowed Hunt" Is Chalion mentioned (that I can find), although some other countries like Ibra and Darthica are. Is this because Chalion was too obscure back then, or did Chalion actually not exist that much earlier than Cazaril's time?
Lois McMaster Bujold Chalion exists; it just didn't come up specifically in Penric. The Ibran language covers Chalion, Brajar, and Ibra all three, after all.

I believe it does come up in HH, as Ijada's Dad was from there. Or those parts. Been a while since I read it myself.

Ta, L.
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Will Penric's Shaman be made available as an audio book, and perhaps read by Grover Gardener?
Lois McMaster Bujold Don't know yet; Blackstone has not yet made an offer on it. If/ when such an event occurs, I will post the news on my blog. Note that even if it goes to contract, it would still be several months minimum till production and release.

Ta, L.
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Hi, I was wondering why "Winterfair Gifts" the novella in IRRESISTIBLE FORCES is never mentioned in any of the timelines for the Vorkosigan series? Is it because it was published by NAL rather than BAEN? That was my introduction to your work and I cherish my inscribed copy.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, besides the fact that a lot of the books were published before "Winterfair Gifts" was written, it was not a Baen book. The story does now appear in the omnibus Miles in Love, however.

Best short guide to my books remains this one: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L,
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Do you give GG a pronunciation guide? Some words are pronounced differently in different audio books and sometimes in the same book - Dendarii, Galeni, Radovas, Ky, etc. Any hints? Is By bi? Do you think Richars was the one who lied to By's father about him? Do you know the names of Cordelia's other 4 girls like she does?
Lois McMaster Bujold Grover Gardner (the Blackstone Audiobooks narrator) has in recent years often called me on the phone before starting a project to check pronunciations. In the earliest works he recorded, we hadn't yet made that connection, so the pronunciations are inconsistent over recording dates.

By is bi, although it's uncertain how much of that is situational with respect to his (old) ImpSec job. The occasional over-the-top swishiness is mostly an act, to mislead or annoy people.

I don't know who lied to By's dad about By and his sister. Richars would be an interesting and plausible candidate, certainly. If so, it's quite possible By never found out, or at least not at the time; equally possible that he eventually did.

No, I don't know the names of Cordelia's other 4 girls. I had some notes somewhere. I know she'd wanted Simone, but then Miles nipped in and grabbed it first, somewhat to Cordelia's annoyance.. "Olivia" is doubly likely, to honor both Aral's mother and Oliver, though that might be saved for if she and Oliver ever had a girl together. "Elizabeth", after Cordelia's mom, has also been snapped up. There are lots of other possibilities, anyway, Alys and Xaviera among them.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, perhaps a punne, or play on words.

:-), L.
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So now re-reading (listening) to Memory, which is my favorite book of all time, ever, even more than Half Blood Prince. I choked up again, as I always do, when Miles gets canned by Simon. When Duv and Ivan pick up Miles to throw him in the tub, Ivan says, "Yeah but you should see Mark now." I've been trying to visualize Mark in my head - ballpark, is he like 300 pounds?
Lois McMaster Bujold Mark's weight seems to be one of those things that's better to leave each reader to imagine for themselves. It varies over time, both up and down, depending on his current circumstances. But never lower than 2x Miles, which would be about 200 pounds. More, even much more, is certainly possible.

Personally, I suspect Kareen of having a very private and rather transgressive fetish... but that's between Kareen and Mark. And their therapists, physicians, and perhaps body-modification specialists. I expect Vorkosiverse bariatric medicine has all kinds of tricks for keeping people healthy at any weight that we, alas, do not, so overweight, or indeed any weight, does not trail the kind of rather hysterical negative social surround there that it does here. I'm sure people find other things to be busybodies about.

That Mark's overweight freaks Miles is just a delicious bonus, from Mark's point of view. But that's not about social disapproval, but rather Miles's own identity, control, and body-image issues when confronted with this unexpected twin.

Ta, L.
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I noted a similarity between Barrayar and the Alta colony in Michael McCollum's Antares series -- a colony cut off from the rest of human space when a stellar event shifted their wormhole jump connection. He had evidence of alien invasion when the wormhole reopened, where you had Cetagandans after the Time of Isolation. Had you ever read that series?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, sorry.

The "lost colony" is an SF staple; many writers have rung changes on the theme over the decades, both before I write my first Vorkosiverse book (in 1983) and after.

Ta, L.
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From Penric and the shaman: "I've met some right smart dogs, though, so's I don't know as there's anything more to it than tales and bragging." Did you just sneak in a little pun there? :-)
Lois McMaster Bujold Not there, no.

Unless you want to imagine one, I suppose...

:-), L.
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I recently watched a program on PBS about the first 9 months of our lives. It included a lot of information new to me about gene mutations that cause rare variations in human development. One of these was a gene involved in bone creation during gestation. A baby was born with no bones. She has lived thanks to a new treatment. Were you aware of this when you were writing about Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold Since I wrote Miles starting in 1983, no. He predates a great deal of late 20th/early 21st C. medical development, actually. Fascinating new stuff is coming along constantly, but since I lack a time machine, my books can't take advantage of it.

Ta, L.
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Permaybehaps this is an oft-answered question, but I can't help asking whether there is a Major Motion Picture franchise offer on the table? Or a TV show? It seems a crime not to translate it onto film, so many many wonderful characters!
Lois McMaster Bujold

Nope, no media adaptations on the horizon at this time.

The notion that the stories or characters would survive such an adaptation in any recognizable form seems optimistic to me; my two prior adventures in that direction certainly didn't. (A short story adapted to a half-hour show, which was actually produced, back in the 80s, and a feature film offer in the 90s that only went as far as a jaw-droppingly dire script.)

Ta, L.
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Do you know if there is going to be an audiobook version of Penric and the Shaman? I was disappointed there wasn't one when I bought the ebook.
Lois McMaster Bujold
That will be up to Blackstone Audiobooks to make an offer. Subsequently, it would still be some time for the work to move through production to release, so, not time to hold one's breath yet.

Should there be news from that quarter, I'll certainly post it on my blog.

Ta, L.
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Was Komarr recorded in multiple sessions for Audible? I listened to a lot of it w ear buds; I could discern different record levels within the same passage. It would sound like a bad "edited for content" television viewing of an R rated movie, where the swear words have a completely different sound within a sentence. :(
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no idea how Audible does its recordings; you'd have to ask at Audible or Blackstone, I'm afraid.

(Note that some of these audio editions are several years old, so no one may remember even if they were there.)

Ta, L.
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I see that Baen is releasing a collection this September called "Women of Futures Past: Classic Stories", edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Which story of yours is included?
Lois McMaster Bujold "Aftermaths". Which, since it is also found at the ends of Shards of Honor (and in my little collection Proto Zoa) will already have been read by most Vorkosigan fans; it's there mainly to catch new readers, maybe.

Plus it was the only short-enough thing I had available.

Ta, L.
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Dragon age inquisition by Bioware is the most recent game in a rich story universe known as Thedas. Playing through made me think heavily of the Vorkosigan saga. The uncanny valley has been bridged with the way the characters look - down to emotions. Would you consider teaming with the Bioware to produce a graphical series ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gskCzj4VE2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cqHGsIYg68
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not enough of a gamer to aspire to game development on any level. (Nor am I interested at my age in retraining, when I could be writing new stories instead.) It would be up to some game company to license the rights to my work and develop it, while I sat on the sidelines and fretted ignorantly. Rather like film adaptation, that way.

Ta, L.
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How do you approach writing book reviews? I often have a lot to say about a book while I'm reading and reacting to it, but trouble finding the heart of how I felt about it in a short review. I enjoy reading your Goodreads reviews and those of Patrick Rothfuss a lot, and respect your taste. Any advice for those of us who read a lot, but could stand to recommend more?
Lois McMaster Bujold I consider my little reviews to be my personal informal reader responses, and don't set a particularly high bar for myself. I try to capture how I reacted and why without putting in too many spoilers, and offer something of what I see as the mode or mood of the book for others considering reading it, but really, they're on their own. The accumulation here on Goodreads acts as much as a reading diary for me as anything else, so I can look back and find, "What the heck was the title/author/what that book was about that I was reading last year...?"

It's interesting, looking back over a long enough baseline, to see which books were memorable, and which have settled into the sludge at the bottom of my memory and dissolved.

Ta, L.
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I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to owning books, so even though I read everything on my e-reader, I still want my favorite books sitting proudly on a shelf. So here's the problem: I'd greatly enjoy having a nice line-up of all the Vorkosigan novels, but my search for finding all the books, in the same format and with the same cover style, has been unsuccessful. Is there a one-stop shop to solve this?
Lois McMaster Bujold Mm, not really, at this time. Even the NESFA hardcovers only run for the first 8 volumes that never had an original hardcover issue from Baen. However, Baen is presently engaged in reissuing all the old VK titles in a nice trade paperback, and if you wait a bit, they should all be available that way. (Or better yet, don't wait, so they'll be encouraged to keep going.)

They started with SHARDS OF HONOR last year... https://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-V... and have also done BARRYAR and THE WARRIOR'S APPRENTICE.

THE VOR GAME and BORDERS OF INFINITY will be upcoming later this year.

Updated proofreading, too, for an added bonus.

Ta, L.
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Will you be going to any conventions in the next year? I hooked my nephew on your books and he's dying to see you in person.
Lois McMaster Bujold I have nothing planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hello! I like your Vorkosigan Saga stories very much. But did not find any Ukrainian translations of them. Do you have any official Ukrainian translations? And if you do not have any yet, than are you OK if I 'll translate the "Shards of Honor" for the beginning? Thanks! Best Regards, Eugene Bitukov.
Lois McMaster Bujold No, I don't have any Ukrainian translations.

The rights to do translations have to be licensed by the publishing company that plans to bring the book/s out, and they usually hire their own translators. (Naturally, since a publisher will be investing considerable up-front resources in this task, which they hope to make back by sales, they expect their license to be exclusive.)

So, alas, probably not OK unless you represent and are speaking for a publisher, in which case you/they should contact my agent. Sorry!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold

I don't always know how every book will end, no, though I often have a sort of general target in mind. Exactly how I'll get there has to be worked out as I write, and the target sometimes shifts in the process. Inspiration comes to me in visions of scenes or exchanges or loose bits, which I capture in notes and massage around till they work right, as each scene comes up. (I almost always write stories in chronological narrative order, since every scene written changes the ambit of the possible for what follows, sometimes incrementally, sometimes by a lot.)

With Cryoburn, yes, I had the last scene, and indeed the last line, in mind well before I began the book (years before); much of the book was me finding my way to it. Yours is pretty much the reader-response I was aiming to elicit, although readers who approached the book thinking it was just going to be another Miles-plot-romp were alas self-confused by their own assumed reading protocols. A lot of my books tend to repay rereading, where the reader is at last reading what's actually in front of them, instead of looking around for some other story.

Ta, L.
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Do you or authors you know modify your keyboards to type stories? I have only written a few short stories but I got so sick of the position of " and ? I googled how to change them. It is easy enough that I gave myself … and — as well. The obligatory gushing. Vorkosigan is my favourite series having overtaken Feist and Wurts Empire Trilogy, Jack Campbell's Lost Stars is nipping on your heels.
Lois McMaster Bujold I've been typing this way for 50 years; I have no motivation to try to retrain myself at this point.

It is the speed of my making-things-up, not the speed of my typing, that regulates the pace of my production. There are no mechanical aids for the former, alas. It's an extremely oblique process at the best of times.

Ta, L.
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Working my way through my second read of the "Hallowed Hunt" and find myself frequently rereading passages. Your explorations of religious and magical themes are unique. Were there any particular factors that turned your imagination in that direction, or have those themes always lurked in the background? By the way, have you run into the novels of Charles A Williams?
Lois McMaster Bujold I think the themes have always lurked in the background; the metaphors just play out differently and more directly in fantasy, where the supernatural is "real", than in my more secular, as it were, SF.

Yes, I've read some Charles Williams. (Also the rest of his writers' group... :-) Lots of other background reading accumulated over the years, from Thomas Merton to St. Augustine to Dorothy Sayers to G. K. Chesterton and on, all slowly disintegrating in the compost heap of my memory by this time.

Ta, L.
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I read your stories in Analog, too, back when (Still have my copy with Mountains of Mourning). Will you visit Seattle on your next book tour?
Lois McMaster Bujold Part of my semi-retirement involves ducking the stresses of book tours, so, likely not. (There is also the present absence of a novel to tour for, a slight snag in the scheme.)

Those Analog appearances were really important to my early career, I must agree.

Ta, L.
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Are you planning any more books featuring Miles or Cordelia's children, causing mayhem following in their parent's footsteps?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not at this time.

Ta, L.
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Ms. Bujold -- I don't know if you've run across this news item, but of course I thought immediately of butterbugs. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/08/29/mealworm-margarine-could-be-right-around-the-corner-would-you-try-it/ Now all they have to do is make them glorious, right? Rick Ellrod
Lois McMaster Bujold Oh, that one's new. Several people have pointed out the cockroach-butter one to me. One sees why Mark's version was such a hard sell,,, :-)

Ta, L.
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Why do you think Aral wasn't more of a father figure to Ivan? How would it have worked if Ivan had become count of the Vorkosigan district? Name changed? District name change? There's already a Count Vorpatril... Martya named after anyone? Which "milady" paid for Roic's vacation time in WG - Cordelia or Ekaterin? What size were the black and white tiles?
Lois McMaster Bujold An appalling workload, plus reluctance to step on Lady Alys's turf; pretty well, probably; don't know; don't know; don't know; don't know; a bit over a foot square.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois, I hope you are doing well. I am a big fan of the Vorkosigan series. I started Curse of Chalion, but did not finish it (this was many years ago). However, loved the 2 Penric novellas. So, which one of earlier books is most like Penric, so I can try again? Also, I think it is great idea to do novellas--it really is a short novel. Any more Penric novellas coming? Will you collect them in a real paper edition?
Lois McMaster Bujold Probably the best book to try is The Hallowed Hunt. It's set in somewhat the same geographic region as the two Penric tales (well, just south -- the Weald) maybe 150 years earlier. Note that its hero and point-of-view character, Ingrey, is something of a passive-aggressive (as well as actually aggressive) bully-boy to start out, so riding in his head will demand a drier sense of humor than sunny Penric.

I hope to do more with Penric, yes. Can't say when.

The first two novellas had/will have limited hardcover paper editions from Subterranean Press, but the print run was/will be quite small, so they aren't easy to find. Future paper assemblages or collections must wait on a larger accumulation of stories, which will take a while. Many ideas, only one brain to process them. There's a queue.

I really like novellas, too. Note that they can range, officially, from 17,500 words, more short-story-like, to 40,000 words at the cap, which can feel a little more novel-like. I enjoy the tight focus, the limited, intimate scope, and the fact that they don't take a year, or four, to write. And I am very interested in the indie e-pub experiment.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for Penric. He is charming and funny and seemingly the perfect foil for Des. I hope at some point his family gets to see him and know him as an adult. (? no question. just thank you)
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not sure yet what all I will do with Penric, although he seems the sort of itinerant character who has lots of story possibilities. Among other things, I'd like to keep the turning room to jump around in his timeline however I please. As usual, nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out.

bests, Lois
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I loved The Sharing Knife ,books read over and over, will there be a follow up of the ofsprings?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing along those lines is planned at this time. But I'm glad you enjoyed that tale!

bests, Lois.
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What Earth societies are your Vorkosiverse planets derived from? Some are made pretty clear: Escobar is Spanish / Central / South American, Kibou-Daini is Japanese with some Chinese, Barrayar is Russian / French / English / Greek. Cetaganda strikes me as slightly Chinese (imperial) but the names don't match; Komarr seemed French but one character shares a name with a town in Croatia, so.....
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, nothing in the Vorkosiverse was settled in "our" time, but rather, two hundred and more years into our future, when people may be assumed to have gotten around and mixed and split and recombined right here on Earth even more than now. Colonization also tends to divest languages en route. So a few ethnic names are not really enough to build a theory of future history upon.

Ta, L.
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Miles dated galactic women but married a Barrayarin lady. Ivan dated Barrayarin but married a galactic. Did you intend for this type of symmetry?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not necessarily; the stories were not planned in such detail so far in advance.

But I thought it was rather amusing when it turned up.

Ta, L.
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I just finished Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, so I have completed the entire Vorkosigan Saga over the last four or five months. Is there anything I can do to stem the tide of bereft-ness I feel? Blah : (
Lois McMaster Bujold Try the Chalion series, or The Sharing Knife tetralogy. Neither will be the same, note, not even as each other, because what would be the point of that (from the writer's point of view, at least.) But if you can go into them planning to take them for what they are, rather than pre-riled 'cause they aren't another Miles book, I think they would repay your eyeball time.

In other current writers, I can rec Megan Whalen Turner's YA fantasy series starting with The Thief, and Ben Aaronovitch's urban/crime fantasy series starting with Rivers of London -- US title Midnight Riot.

That should do for starters...

Ta, L.
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I have re-read 'Memory' so often that the book is falling apart at the seams (the other books too btw). However, there is one crucial sentence in, which I still don't completely understand, and I wondered if you could clarify. I understand Miles at this turning point, but the significance of Vorkosigan Vashnoi still eludes me. "I am the man who owns Vorkosigan Vashnoi." Help and Sorry?
Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Vashnoi was the old Vorkosigan's District capital that was nuked toward the end of the Cetagandan Occupation aka 9th Satrapy. It is part (center, actually) of all the radioactive land Miles's grandfather left him.

For Miles, then, it is a symbol of dying before surrender, the ultimate Barrayaran stubbornness; he is, as it were, declaring his ownership of his Barrayaran self, Lord Vorkosigan, not Admiral Naismith, along with the dream, memory, and remains of the lost city. No matter how unrewarding that identity may sometimes seem to him...

Ta, L.
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What are your favorite tropes? Any guilty pleasures?
Lois McMaster Bujold Lots of tropes. I was thinking recently about how much I like the Smart Sidekick characters (infinitely more than jock heroes, ferex), although I'm not sure that's a trope, exactly. Smart heroes are good too, when one can get them. Well-done angsty backstories can lure me in (badly done ones, not so much), with characters eventually triumphing over same to earn their happy endings.

Also a sucker for hurt-comfort, which seems a very female taste. If anybody can explain this one... I can't, and I share it.

Guilty pleasures also change over time. At present, anime, manga, and fanfic seem to top the list. Selectively; I'm pretty picky, now I've completed the initial discovery/survey phase. Next year, who knows?

Ta, L.
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Which of your novels did you have the most fun writing?
Lois McMaster Bujold Mm, don't think I can answer this one, Each work had its fun parts and its hair-tearing parts, and over thirty years my memory has turned to compost anyway. If something isn't any fun, or at least doesn't speak to me in some gripping way (or, better, both), I can't write it in the first place.

It is a particular joy, when I have been scratching away at a stubborn knotty bit, to have the untangling solution fall out of my brain and slot in perfectly. (And then I wonder why the heck it couldn't have done that earlier.)

Ta, L.
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Is this what you envisioned Miles' human tailor competing against? http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/i-let-a-company-scan-my-naked-body-to-get-the-perfect-suit/
Lois McMaster Bujold Yep, more or less. I think mine used lasers, but the same idea.

Mine went one further in that after the scan, one could try virtual replicas of the proposed clothing on one's virtual image, and see how they looked without all that wriggling in and out of piles of cloth and what-not.

Ta, L.
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I have a small readership of some very narrow work (callback to our discussion of Mark & Kareen), and some of my readers are very pushy. Sometimes they try to bully me into making my characters become a certain way or do certain things. Does anyone ever try to get into your head to try to direct your characters and if so, do you ignore them or think about what they've asked/demanded?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I always listen to commentary with interest, because it's a source of endless fascination to me the wildly varied ways people read and process the same text. But that's just a kind of mildly masochistic self-indulgence. Otherwise, I pretty much ignore them. My story, my characters; if they want to be in charge, they can write their own. If they want someone to take dictation, they can hire a stenographer.

Exceptions are readers with technical expertise in some element that has come up in the story -- medicine, for example -- who can give me advice or ideas or prevent me from making gaffes in matters of fact. Technical expertise can extend to certain characterization issues sometimes, so as almost always in writing, the boundaries are fuzzy and the true answer is, It Depends.

Note that there is also a difference between solicited critique, before a work is published with the explicit goal of test-driving it and uncovering flaws, and later commentary, after it's entirely too late to change anything and anyway the writer has already moved on to the next project. (If writers treat the latter with the same attention as the former, they will drive themselves crazy.)

Ta, L.
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Wherever you take him, I'm sure I'll enjoy following. The beginning of Penric's Demon just reminded me so strongly of how hard it is for people who know you well to see that you have changed. The two stories also makes me wonder, "Is Desdemona still around during Cazaril's time?" and what would she be like by then?" and what will Foix's demon be like 200 years beyond him, with such an interesting start?"
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I can't answer those questions, but I can mention there is a new Penric tale in the works. I'll announce particulars on my blog when they materialize, probably in a few weeks.

Foix's demon certainly has a good and lucky start, yes. Bodes well for a long and fruitful future for it.

Ta, L.
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Name 3 best sci-fi books of 20th century?
Lois McMaster Bujold This is a question without an objective answer. A superb reading experience relies on a complex, interlocking match between a specific reader's desires, expectations, abilities, and stage of life, and a particular text, such that even with the same text, each reader will get a different experience; and even the same reader with the same text will have a different experience on subsequent rereads. So there are no "best books", only "best readings", and even the latter changes as the reader grows, learns, and ages.

Ta, L.
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Is there any chance of getting a signed copy of "A Civil Campaign"? My sister got me started on the Vorkosigan series & I'd love to get her this book for her birthday. She's been taking care of our ageing parents & loves to escape into the series. So very cool!
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, check out Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis. They have all my books signed, and you can get personalizations by request, with some lead time.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...

Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis also has a few.

Ta, L.
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What's an example of "hurt-comfort"?
Lois McMaster Bujold In general, it's any tale where one character gets hurt and another has to take care of him-her-it, forcing a changing and deepening of whatever emotional relationship between them the author is in pursuit of. (When the emphasis is more on the hurt part, one sometimes suspects a touch of authorial sadism, or at least bad mood, but really, it's mostly a device to peel bare and reveal emotion.)

For over 132,000 worked examples, there's this:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/sear...

(Probably best to pick a fandom you know and like and then apply the tag, so you won't drown altogether. It's a very popular trope.)

Ta, L.
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What is - for you - so difficult to write an excellent book?
Lois McMaster Bujold I've answered questions about my writing process in about a million interviews, scattered about; here's one older link salad:

http://www.dendarii.com/interviews.html

There's a Vorkosiverse Wiki with more recent interviews:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

Ta, L.
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Who is your favourite author from same genre what are you writing?
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't think I have a single favorite. What I want to (re)read varies wildly with my age, my mood, everything really. I don't think I could even pin down a favorite per decade. (Although Cordwainer Smith stands out, and up, from the 1960s.)

Ta, L.
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I had read one American article. Author writes what Mark Twain – writer little known in USA. It is truth, or it was written by fool???
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, without seeing the article, I can't guess. I suppose it might have been written by a Young Person, who hasn't caught up with the overwhelming totality of his culture yet. Twain is certainly well known to me, but I grew up in a time rapidly becoming almost as lost as his.

Ta, L.
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Would Chalion ever have an inquisition?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, not as such; the underlying theological conditions are not the same.

Not that people, being people, wouldn't do horrible things to each other locally from time to time, under various misapprehensions about the gods. But they are misapprehensions susceptible to actual correction.

Ta, L.
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As you know, I'm a long-time fan of your books. I've often wondered why you created two of your major characters with physical disabilities? I'm referring to Dag in the Sharing Knife books, and Miles in the Vorkosigan series. The characters have made me think about the limits of human experience (as well as my own limits.) - David W. Wooddell
Lois McMaster Bujold I can't actually answer that, as they both walked on stage as-is, and could never have been any other way.

So it was never a matter of "I am interested in writing about disabilities, therefore I will compose these characters to frame those issues," but rather, "Huh. That's one way to slow him down a bit. So what is he going to do now? Let's see what happens..."

The first reader to point out that I was writing about disabilities actually fastened on the quaddies, whom I did not think of as handicapped at all, but rather, hyper-adapted -- as long as they were in the right environment. We had some really interesting early exchanges on the subject.

Ta, L.
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Have you considered coming to Australia for the Supanova conventions?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, whatever Supanova may be. I loved my prior trip down your way, but travel and my body don't play so well together these days.

Ta, L.
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What is your TOP 10 books of 20th century?
Lois McMaster Bujold Answered here:

https://www.goodreads.com/questions/8...

Ta, L.
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Will you write another Vorkosigan Saga novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold I can't say. Nothing is planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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Who is - according to you - the best author of: fantasy, hard sci-fi, military sci-fi, space opera, time travel sci-fi?
Lois McMaster Bujold Answered here: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/8...

Ta, L.
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How and which authors of sci-fi and fantasy did you affect in your writing process?
Lois McMaster Bujold I suspect this question may be a translation glitch, but if not: I have no idea which authors my work may have affected.

Ta, L.
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How many hours per day do you spend in a writing process?
Lois McMaster Bujold Anywhere from 0 to 16, depending on what's going on at the moment; but a lot more often 0 than 16.

Lately, eye issues curtail the high end. Also, I am semi-retired.

Ta, L.
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Why - according to my opinion - did you create a cripple hero in Vorkosigan Saga?
Lois McMaster Bujold Assuming you mean my opinion and not yours (which I cannot guess), I didn't create a crippled hero; I created Miles. All his issues, by no means limited to the physical, just came along-with.

More immediately, he rose out of his parents' situation. As people tend to do.

Ta, L.
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Would you like to see The Vorkosigan Saga novels in TV as TV show (G.R.R. Martin has Game of Thrones, Charlaine Harris - True Blood and so on)?
Lois McMaster Bujold Maybe, if they were well done. If not, not.

I do think they could adapt better to TV than a feature film. But in any case, the adaptation would be much harder than it looks, as so much of the appeal of the books depends on the experience they offer of the insides of people's heads, which visual media cannot give, and on voice, also lost in translation.

Ta, L.
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Do you read your books after their publishing?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, sometimes.

Not least because re-publications typeset in new editions require the page proofs to be proofread, again, offering an irresistible chance for a bit more copy-editing. So I reread the whole Vorkosigan saga for direct e-publication a few years ago, and am doing so yet again for the new Baen trade paperback editions.

It's a chore that can get really tedious, given enough repetitions.

Ta, L.
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Who did you help with a plot of Vorkosigan Saga novels?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm afraid I do not understand what you mean to ask with this question. Translation glitch?

Ta, L.
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Upon rereading Gentleman Jole, I was struck by a simple question: enabling technology is a fine thing, but would you really want to start raising children at your age? And on the topic of reproductive tech, what do you think of Lavie Tidhar's Central Station? It's wonderful to see how different authors take similar premises in very different yet thought-provoking directions.
Lois McMaster Bujold Would I? No. Would Cordelia? Yes, apparently. Granted she has a longer life expectancy than I do, and probably better current and future health. If I had the anticipated number of years ahead of me that she does, any number of life do-overs could look more attractive.

Haven't read Tidhar, so I can't speak to that.

Ta, L.
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So is an Audible in the works for Penric And The Shaman?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes. Well, Blackstone, thus presumably Audible. The work is in process now. Release date Dec. 6th, according to their website --

http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...

Their blurb is a trifle misleading. It's actually 5th only in the Chalion series; 2nd in the Pen & Des sub-series. I foresee the usual Bujold-reading-order confusion will continue.

Ta, L.
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Name TOP 10 non science fiction writers who affected your writing style?
Lois McMaster Bujold A great many of my comments on my writing may be found here:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

Ta, L.
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I read in your Q&A that you read manga, and even tracked down that French Vorkosigan comic you mentioned on your blog. Do you think there is a chance of a manga adaption of your work? May I also recommend the Manga/Anime Noragami to you? I terms of long-term plot, fully formed characters that grow and change (hurt but never abandoned by their female authors) it really reminds me of your works (which I love).
Lois McMaster Bujold Yep, I'm happy to get more manga/anime recs.

Adaptations are not up to me -- whatever company that produces them would have to contact my agent and make an offer (it's a buyer's market.)

Ta, L.
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Good morning! Just wanted to say hello, and mention something a friend and I were discussing. As we've grown older, fiction has begin to become less interesting, and the real world has become more and more fantastical. I'm unsure if this is an effect of age, or if reality has simply reached a bizarre enough state of technological advancement that we from the previous state are having trouble processing it. Thoughts?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, we are living in the 21st century now, which was always The Future. (Granted, it's not the future we ordered or expected.)

I think the real world has always been pretty fantastical, but in the Old Days (tm), people could only access a small slice of it. Due to the internet and other communications technologies, people are being exposed to way more of it than had even been possible before, and indeed way more than most of us can process.

And, yes, they keep making more. This has changed the problem from that of accessing knowledge that is scant and rare and valuable, a perpetual state of local famine, to triaging an avalanche of knowledge. I've likened it to being taken into a huge modern supermarket, and told one has to eat all the food on the shelves. Obviously, the old system of trying to know everything about everything can't work in this new environment. I'm not sure we've figured out yet what will.

Ta, L.
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I know Pen & Des is still in progress, but what if Des were still around during Ista's time? Do you think it might be interesting if Des and Ista met somehow?
Lois McMaster Bujold That is far beyond the scope of the current work-in-progress. I already have at least four rabbits to chase, and if I don't narrow it down, no story can be written at all. So, speculate away, but it's not a question I can answer.

(In other words, this is the point where you go talk amongst yourselves, and I sneak away out of sight to work unperturbed.)

Ta, L.
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Do the seasons of the Four Gods change at the Solstices and Equinoxes? Or do they change at the older (Celtic) "cross-quarter days"...which are still (mostly) celebrated in our calendar with Hallowe'en, Candlemas (Groundhog Day), May Day, and Lammas (about Aug 2)? The Celtic "seasons" align better with the weather than the modern ones. (If I haven't had snow before Dec. 21, there's something wrong!)
Lois McMaster Bujold The god's seasons change at the solstices and equinoxes (except of course for the Bastard, who gets leap year day/s -- not necessarily the same as ours) plus there is a day at the mid-point of each season that's a lesser holiday as well. "Mother's Midsummer" has been mentioned, ferex. So there's a holiday every six weeks. So I guess they have both?

Ta, L.
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"Obviously, the old system of trying to know everything about everything can't work in this new environment. I'm not sure we've figured out yet what will." That is truly perceptive ... and goes a long way to explaining my 77-yr-old headache. Thanks !?
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome?

Ta, L.
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I didn't vote for him. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold Prophetic, aren't I?

Ta, L.
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By any chance, do you know if they will be translating Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen to Croatian? Thank you all the same if you do not know. Sara Also, my grandmother, 91 year old voracious reader, has finally given in and allowed me to give her an SF book, short story-now she's hooked on Vorkosigans
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no idea if a Croatian publisher will make an offer on Gentleman Jole. But I'm glad to hear I have a new reader! Good work.

bests, Lois.
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When are you going to do a "Barrayaran exploration vessel encounters aliens" story so Auditor Vorkosigan has to deal with them? Use a new Riva extended wormhole drive. LOL I would love to see what you do with aliens. KS
Lois McMaster Bujold Never, probably. It would need a new universe. The VK-verse is set up to be "Due to bioengineering, 10,000 years down the timeline, the aliens will all be descended from us."

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois. I just read Penric's Mission and I loved it, so thank you! BUT: how do you pronounce Nikys? Logic tells me it should be 'nick-ice', but it kept slipping in my head into 'nick-eece' (like geese). So I figured, consult the authority... Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, people can pronounce it however they please, but I pronounce it more-or-less the way you do -- NICK-ees.

(The one I'm really having trouble deciding is Skirose, which could go any of three or four different ways. If Grover Gardner calls to ask, I'll have to make up my mind.)

Ta, L.
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I just finished the 3rd Penric story - I have to say these are just getting better; Des and Penric are a wonderful pairing. I am fascinated by the possibilities. I especially like the "conservation of entropy" idea in how a chaos demon and its rider work together, which can go so many different directions, from subtle chemistry (catalyst?) to gross physical manifestations. I hope this gets explored more.
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you are enjoying these little tales!

Although do remember the magic is ultimately magic; some readers get carried away with the skiffy-minded possibilities, and overthink things, just as some readers get carried away trying to find nonexistent 1:1 parallels between our-world geography and history, and these tales. Fun for them, I guess...

Ta, L.
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Another theme I notice in your books is age differences between lovers or in relationships. Sharing knife featured a young woman, Dawn, and Dag, the old Patroller. In the Vorkosigan series, you have some major age differences between Gentleman Jolie and Ceclia. Have you personally experienced such wide differences in age in your own relationships, or those of your friends or family?
Lois McMaster Bujold For some reason, you seem to be noticing the few wider-age-differences couples preferentially. Miles and Ekaterin, Simon and Alys, Ingrey and Ijada, Ista and Illvin, Kou and Drou, Fiametta and Thur, Tony and Claire, Whit and Berry, Iselle and Bergon, and on and on, are all very close in age. Anyone's guess on Aral and Cordelia, given the different expected lifespans. And a sprinkling of others in that decade-ish range -- Gregor and Laisa, Ivan and Tej, Alys and Padma for that matter.

It's a figure-ground effect. I suppose. The figure always seems to stand out from the ground, even or especially when the ground is larger.

My family is small, and so does not offer a wide range of samples; friends, a few, but they are relatively rare, as they are in my books.

Ta, L. (It's Fawn, Jole, and Cordelia, btw; I suspect you are being betrayed by an overaggressive spellchecker.)
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Short answer: nope.

But I'm glad you like the series, and the respect is always appreciated.

Readers have all kinds of ideas for things for me to write, far more than any writer could get around, and this is normal. But my real job is to figure out what I want to write. I'm afraid it's not apocalypses, and any development on that potential lies far past the end of Miles's lifetime, so there's little attraction for me.

Ta, L.
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Ask#2 ~ In short, please help me know that choosing to write could possibly create something for me to hold onto. I'm 49, I've done slayed my demons and am no longer running; however, as pleased as I am with my life's progress, my forward momentum is gone. I feel I am lost without a compass. I've always wanted to write but I have no audience. Should I invent one? ~ In advance, I thank you for any thoughts. Christine
Lois McMaster Bujold There are many how-to-write sources -- I usually recommend Pat Wrede's blog, for starters: http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Why to write is a different question. It is perfectly possible to write for oneself, for one's own pleasure -- in fact, that pretty much has to underlie all other goals, or one might just as well be flipping burgers for a living, or doing something else more reliable to get the desired attention or validation. After that initial joy-in-creation, further ambitions are up to the individual, and can vary wildly according to taste.

As a cart-horse-protocol observation, it is generally necessary to write something before one gets or grows an audience for it, although one does sometimes see people trying to do it the other way around. A friend of mine describes those as "people who want to have written." Not recommended.

Beyond that, there are lots of ways to reinvent one's own life, especially necessary for older women, as we tend to lack satisfactory standard social role models for actually, like, still being alive when older. If you ever get to Ista's book, Paladin of Souls, it addresses some of those issues. (Note it is a sequel to The Curse of Chalion, however.)

Ta, L.
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In your "five gods" stories, you use the word "vail" as a noun in a way that implies a gratuity or emolument, but the only definition I can find suggests its usage was as a verb, meaning to show submission or respect, typically by removing a hat. How did you come by your usage of this word?
Lois McMaster Bujold Georgette Heyer uses it this way in her Regency historical fiction. It was probably period slang if used that way, but archaic enough for my purpose. "Tip" being way too modern in terminology, although certainly not in fact.

(Emolument might also have done, or, giggling about its use in Love's Labours Lost, remuneration, but vail is a shorter word.)

Ta, L.
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On a day when I'm feeling a little unstrung, you gave me a new story. I love you! I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving. The system says this cannot post without a question mark, so?
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome! (?)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold The story ran over its length limit. This one is going to have to be a story arc, I think, spread over more than one tale. Cold Minnesota winter coming up, here, so you have a chance to see a continuation at some point.

Ta, L. Enjoying these shorter lengths.
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Any chance of Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls being rereleased? Perhaps as matching books or even as a set?
Lois McMaster Bujold Don't forget The Hallowed Hunt in that set wish!

Anyway, it's not up to me. Print rights are held by HarperCollins, who may do with them as they wish. In general, paper reprints of older books are only financially feasible if it's done in coordination with release of a new frontlist novel, and sometimes not even then.

Right now -- I just checked -- you can buy the original hardcover editions of all three titles used starting at a penny plus postage on Amazon. (For rather more, you can buy unused ones signed from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis.) This is not something a publisher can compete with, for small-demand items.

Ta, L.
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Not really a question? I just finished Penric's Mission (I see you've managed to find a protagonist even crazier than Miles), and I thought you might get a small kick out of this picture. That statue's been sitting on my Bujold shelf for years, for no particular reason, but it's a neat bit of synchronicity. image link: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/windfallswest/3564497/1673/1673_300.jpg
Lois McMaster Bujold Hee. You may now dub it Madame Owl, I suppose...

Glad you like Penric. I'm enjoying him too.

Although I would maintain that Pen is quite sane. And so are the majority of the voices in his head, most of the time...

bests, Lois.
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I'm interested in hearing about your early career if that's okay. :) What lessons have you learned about the business and the craft of writing that you wished you had known in the beginning? Do you write by hand, do you type, do you use dictation technology or a bit of all three? I just began reading the Vorkosigan Saga for the first time. I am now reading over 4 hours a day. Haha! Thank you for your work. :)
Lois McMaster Bujold A lot of your questions can be answered, at length, here:

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

and here:

https://www.amazon.com/Sidelines-Essa...

(also available on Nook and iTunes.)

No dictation for me -- I very much need the eye-hand circuit to write. Verbal-aural is not my preferred mode.

Ta, L.
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I'm looking to try a new author and I wanted to try out one of your books because I saw you recommended as 'similar to Brandon Sanderson'. I don't know if you know his work or not, but I like his work. Is there a book of yours might recommend I try first?
Lois McMaster Bujold Assuming you like fantasy, start with The Curse of Chalion.

Happy reading --

Ta, L.
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Think you have a fan at CBS? Scorpion had an exploding lake, a la Lake Lethal, Pure Genius had a lab working on an artificial womb, and Elementary had an episode about vat meat. I'm confused about the name Mia Maz - is Mia her first name or a title, like miss? Miles calls her milady Maz and she says "just Maz" Is it easier/harder to write from multiple POVs? I find I like the extra takes, tho Memory is a masterpiece
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, vat meat and artificial wombs are standard SF genre furniture for a long time, and Lake Lethal was based on a real lake in the Cameroons -- the writers may have read the same article in Scientific American that I did.

Still, it would be nice to think that I had fans in the media world.

Mia is Mia Maz's first name. It may be customary in her culture to go by one's last name, except perhaps for intimate friends, but in the instance quoted she's telling him not to use the "milady", as that isn't a title she has. Yet.

Multiple POVs versus single-viewpoint aren't necessarily harder or easier, they just present a different set of challenges. What matters is if the viewpoint/s chosen and the plot play well together. My viewpoint characters tend to wrap their plots around themselves, which risks the plot galloping off in all directions unless variously controlled.

Ta, L.
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Another Pure Genius note: they just had an episode where the hospital implanted a device in a woman's brain which counteracted the build-up of the chemicals causing her seizures. Miles would have been intrigued. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold Oh, cool. (Or is that a fictional TV show? I am so out of the loop...)

Ta, L.
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“A weapon is a device for making your enemy change his mind.” Count Aral Vorkosigan. I have loved this insightful quote for decades, is it completely your creation or have you paraphrased from somewhere? I am betting on either, "Did I write that?" or, "Way too long ago to remember."
Lois McMaster Bujold That one is original to me. (They aren't always, natch.)

Ta, L.
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What you think who is run this world FAITH or GENIUS...?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hard work.

Ta, L.
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Have you read Lindsay Buroker's trilogy Forgotten Ages? There's quite a few similarities between her characters and Cordilia and Aryal. Though her series is fantasy/steampunk. I'd list them, but seems there's a character limit to the questions.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, haven't read that one. So many books, so little eyeball endurance...

Ta, L.
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I just bought the three Penric novellas and I cannot wait to return to that strange upside-down medieval Europe! Do we have maps for the locations or at least some background info about the places/events from history that inspired the world-building for the novellas?
Lois McMaster Bujold I believe the first two Chalion novels include maps, but only of the Ibran peninsula where those books take place. I didn't make more than a penciled note-sketch map for The Hallowed Hunt (though you can think "medieval Germany" as a shorthand for the Weald), nor for the Penric tales so far. (Though you can think "medieval Switzerland" for the first two stories.) Don't go overboard trying to draw parallels with our-world history and geography, though. The inspirations are fluid.

Or, I see, we have the Ibran maps up at dendarii.com --

http://www.dendarii.com/map.html


My nonfiction e-book Sidelines: Talks and Essays has iirc one or two earlier pieces that address the Five Gods Universe. Or there might be something in the mass of author interviews also linked at the wiki, but heaven knows where. Anything Chalion-pertinent would likely have been done around 2001 - 2005.

For other stories in that universe you'd likely want to start with The Curse of Chalion -- the author's note in the back of the Penric e-novellas has more particulars.

Ta, L.
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This isn't a question. I just wanted to to wish you merry holidays and happy christmas. Cheers. ^^ (Oh, and this question mark thing ?)
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks! Happy climbing-out-of-the-dark-days to everyone, too.

Ta, L.
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Here's hoping Father Frost brings you all your wishes! ?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm rather well-supplied at present. Today I finally downloaded the free Kindle app to my new tablet-computer to read manga, and found it works a treat. So that's going to open up new avenues of exploration for a while. I'm quite looking forward to a January of staying in and reading!

bests, L.
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Do you have any cross-references between locations in the Sharing Knife series and locations in "our" world? Some are obvious, e.g. Graymouth = New Orleans, and of course the Grace and Gray rivers are the Ohio and Mississippi but I'd love to try to visualize where Lumpton / West Blue / Hickory Lake and so on would be found.
Lois McMaster Bujold Playing 1:1 correspondences between the books and our world would be an exercise in frustration, I'm afraid. But Lumpton etc. might be Central Ohio, maybe. Sort of. It's a bit of pre-fabricated worldbuilding, not an attempt at historical fiction with the serial numbers filed off.

Ta, L.
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Recently reread both Capt V'sA and GJatRQ. Started speculating that the trip Miles went on just after meeting Tej may have been the trip in Cryoburn. However, that would put Aral's death somewhere very soon before/after the sinking of Impsec. So I tried using Helen's age, as stated in Cryoburn and GJ...and I don't think those work, either. In Cryoburn, Miles says the twins are 5; in GJ, they're 11. Help?
Lois McMaster Bujold The twins' age may end up being something like the location of Watson's wound, I'm afraid. You can close much of any perceived gap by positing 5-almost-6 and just-turned-11.

Cryoburn takes place approximately 4 years afterCaptain Vorpatril's Alliance. The trip Miles take in CVA is Gregor's follow-up to the Sergyaran weapons theft.

There is also the open question of how long is a year, as each planet is different. Even more brain-bending is the question of what time means on opposite sides of a wormhole jump, but I prudently do not go there.

Ta, L.
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Will there be another Penric book? The latest seemed to end on rather a cliffhanger (although I enjoyed it).
Lois McMaster Bujold I rather hope so, but I can't say what or when.

Ta, L.
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No question. Just wanted to say that in this very dark year, finding and burning through the Vorkosigan saga was a real bright spot. I find myself recommending it to friends constantly, and they all fall in love as I did. Many many thanks for your work, and please know that it's bringing some light to dark places. {insert ?, since the autofill screen demands it!]
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad my work can serve you.

Ta, L.
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Penric and the Shaman and Penric's Mission both published in 2016. Was that a fluke of timing or do you think a serialized novella series might be a reality for Pen? I'm desperate for more. :)
Lois McMaster Bujold It was a fluke of timing. The Penric tales are specifically designed to come without deadlines, contracts tacit or otherwise, or any other constraints (on me). There may be more. Sometime. If I feel like it. And I like the idea. And don't have the flu, travel, broken appliances, house repairs, anything else I'd rather be doing, etc. The plan is to write them for me; the rest of you can come along for the ride if you like. Or not. Whatever... :-)

Ta, L. Semi-retired, trying not to backslide. (But glad you like Pen. I do, too.)
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I know SFWA ruled that Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen was eligible for last year's Nebula award because of the ARC sale in 2015. Has there been a ruling regarding Hugo eligibility for this coming year? The voting period will soon be upon us and I'd really like to know.
Lois McMaster Bujold I am not the person to answer this. I suggest you write to/inquire of the Hugo administrators, who have contact info somewhere on the Worldcon website.

Ta, L.

Later: I asked. The view of the Hugo administrators seems to be that the SFWA ruling is not theirs, and that fans may nominate the book as usual per its hardcover first publication date of February 2016, i.e., for this year's Helsinki Worldcon.

(By the way, anyone who has the chance to go, I recommend Helsinki and Finland heartily. I had a great time on a trip there a couple of years back.)

Ta, L.
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Lois, given that you are done with the saga of Miles, Cordelia, and all the other wonderful characters whose lives (we imagine) continue, would you ever consider passing the baton (or the pen/keyboard) to another writer? Giving the characters and their offspring the opportunity to continue and those of us who enjoy them the opportunity to witness what they become?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope.

(Fanficcers can play as they please; such is not, thankfully, my responsibility.)

Ta, L.
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I just read a speech of yours from 2008 where you say to ask you later about your metaphor of genres as dog breeds. Could you give a reference for that, or repeat it here?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hm, I think that was my 2008 Denvention Worldcon speech. Alas, after ten years, I know longer remember how I was going to develop that metaphor.

It probably had something to do with the notion about how show breeds are over-bred to the point where they are no longer functional as dogs, parallel to how genre stories get over-selected during popular trends till they are no longer functional as stories. But the speech was already plenty long, and trends die on their own, like algae blooms, if, it sometimes seems, not soon enough. (Dystopias, *cough*.)

Ta, L.
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The jacket illustrations for Volumes 1 and 2 of the Sharing Knife look like they were a single painting. Do you have a combined image?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, it was, and the original is hanging on my library wall. The picture-as-a-whole was used for the Science Fiction Book Club combined edition of the first two volumes.

That may be seen here: https://images.gr-assets.com/photos/1...

The first two volumes with the images separated were supposed to be displayed side-by-side in bookstores, but alas no bookstores noticed the connection, so that little bit of intended PR fell through the cracks.

Ta, L.
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No question, but thought of you & Challion when reading this: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2117286-miniature-brain-and-skull-found-inside-16-year-old-girls-ovary/?cmpid=NLC|NSNS|2017-1201-newGLOBAL&utm_medium=NLC&utm_source=NSNS Love the Penric stories! Brian
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, teratomas are deeply weird. But at least reasonably well understood, nowadays. (That poor Chalionese proto-oncologist was really struggling.)

The weirdest fictional treatment of a teratoma I have yet run across was from the Black Jack mangas. Which are from bizarro-land even by the standards of manga.

Ta, L.
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When you are busy writing do you notice a decline in your interest in reading? Or maybe in reading works similar to what you are writing? Perhaps this pertains more to fiction than non-fiction, but I've experienced seasons when a world is actively gestating inside my head and similar stories lose their appeal. Curious to know if others experience something similar. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold My brain seems to be a narrow bridge with only one lane. Input and output have to wait their turns on each other. When I'm writing, I have to reduce reading, or my mind is too full of other people's stuff to hear myself think.

The internet is especially bad for this, because there is no such thing as coming to the end and being able to close it, finished, and move on.

T, L.
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I've been watching Building Great Sentences by The Great Courses. It's diverting, but some illustrations leave my head spinning. My question is... when writing a first draft, do you consider sentence construction (cumulative vs periodic vs other structures) or do you simply put the story out, to be revised later. Do your sentences find their final structure instinctively or are they nudged into shape later on?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do revise while writing, but it's so practiced by now that I hardly have to think about it. The unit-of-attention is more the paragraph than the sentence, however, as its shape drives what the sentences within it need to be. Sentences don't exist in isolation, after all. (Well, not in prose fiction.) Beyond that, what I consider the real work-unit for me is the scene. I usually need to have the whole scene blocked out before I can start writing.

I have a visual imagination. First I have to think of the picture/movie of what I'm trying to get down; then, when it is fairly clear in my mind and captured in rough notes, the words to describe it follow, floating up out of wherever they are assembled in my brain. Some of this happens as part of outlining, some later. It feels spontaneous at this stage, but it's actually not, as it doesn't happen without a great deal of pre-writing thought/work. Tidying the words follows that. (It could hardly precede it, after all.)

The amount of tidying needed varies. (Sometimes, I get it right the first time!) Micro-editing tends to include winkling out word echoes, unknotting less-than-ideal syntax, and improving word choice. When I change the actual events being described, I no longer consider it micro-editing, but most of that gets done at the prior scene-outline stage.

I do some nudging on the fly as I write, some later on during one of the many rereads. If the story is flowing out hot, I pause less.

Ta, L.
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Two Qs - who's the Vorhalas referred to in Mirror Dance as potential PM to replace Aral? The Count seems too old and I'm not sure who else there is! Are there other Serg offspring who might cause problems for Gregor? I also have a theory that Ezar is Gregor's father, but wouldn't mind a rejection of it so I can let it go! I figure that Ezar might have "worked with" Kareen as part of the anti-Serg plan is all.
Lois McMaster Bujold The Vorhalas is some other Vorhalas. It's not as rare a name as Vorkosigan.

No other Serg offspring, although the Escobar mess offers possibilities for AU fanfic. Ditto alternate fathers for Gregor, but really, with DNA typing, paternity is not something one can conceal -- even in the 21st Century, let alone the 30th. (For the AU fanfic, also consider Aral... heh.)

Ta, L.
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Do you know Kelly Barnhill, a Minneapolis fantasy writer who just won the Newbery Award? I read her terrific first book several years ago. http://www.twincities.com/2017/01/23/minneapolis-author-kelly-barnhill-wins-prestigious-newbery-medal-for-young-adult-novel/
Lois McMaster Bujold We may have met in passing somewhere, but no, I don't know her. Great news about her book, though!

Ta, L.
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Quick fangirling - I discovered the Vorkosigan Saga a while back and I adore it, thank you so much. To business - I'm an aspiring writer currently at the end of editing my first draft manuscript. Since I've decided to try the traditional publishing route first, I'm currently starting the search for an agent and the whole process is, frankly, terrifying. How did you find / settle on your agent?
Lois McMaster Bujold Re: agents, I went at it backwards. I had sold/published several books starting in the mid-80s without one, began to learn my way around a bit, took advice from a few writer friends, contacted my agent of choice, and we first met and shook hands in New York on Nebula Weekend, 1989. Still with each other. This is not a route that is really available nowadays, so my experience is useless for new writers.

My go-to book-or-blog for new writers is Pat Wrede's: http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ or her blog e-book, Wrede on Writing. She only has a little to say about agent hunting, but what she does offer is sensible and sound.

Start with what Pat has to say, and look over what other advice you can find -- there will be tons, not all of it good -- and after that, I'm afraid, you are on your own.

Terrifying and depressing, yeah. This is normal. Sorry I can't be more help --

Ta, L.

(I should add, if your agent search does not prosper, Kristine Katherine Rusch's blog used to have some informed advice on how to do without one. But she is very experienced, so I'm not sure how much of what she advises can really be emulated by a newbie.)
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I've recently read the Penric series and liked them a lot. Recommended them to my mom, who's also a fan, but reads only in Russian. That's how we discovered that there's no Russian translation for these books. Is the translation (and subsequent Russian edition) happening, or going to happen in the nearest future? And, if there are no plans for Russian yet, may I try to translate the first novella myself?
Lois McMaster Bujold I doubt there will be any foreign translations of the Penric tales until there are enough to collect in a commercially saleable novel-sized volume, or a couple of them. Which is going to be a while. It's not viable for the publisher otherwise.

No, you may not do it yourself, because it would screw up the later possibility of an actual sale. (Except, I suppose, privately, for your own consumption. Another of those don't-ask-don't-tell things.)

If there are professional translators for self-published e-books, done presumably as work-for-hire, it's not a part of the e-business I'm plugged into yet. It would be extremely demanding for the original author to try to work across many language platforms, with people one does not know; that's part of the service an actual foreign publisher provides. (At no cost to the author.) Better to spend one's time and brain-budget writing a new work.

Ta, L.
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Is there a character-driven speculative fiction series (other than your own) that's especially high on your list? (Before too long I'll have run through all of yours, even accounting for rereads.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am fond of Megan Whalen Turner's alternate-Greece-ish series starting with The Thief, and Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London urban fantasy, first book Rivers of London, retitled Midnight Riot in its US release.

I have also been drawn into the manga/anime from CLAMP titled Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, which has an obligate narrative interlock with their other series xxxHolic. One can spend many, many hours trying to figure out wtf is going on with the plot/s, but it's the characters that induce me to bother.

Just for starters.

Anyone else have some faves?

Ta, L.
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Not a question as such, but I've wanted to mention that I spent most of Gentleman Jole expecting the volcano to erupt and the plascrete mixer to be used to divert a lava flow or some such. Am I the only one?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, you are not alone, but there were several logic problems with that potential plot development. For one, it would have required the science crew that Cordelia had hired to track the course of the underlying magma to be entirely incompetent at their jobs. Overstretched they may be; but they are not useless ditzes. This is a millennium in "our" future; we must also posit that volcano predictions are much improved over the benighted 21st Century, just as health care and space travel are.

Also, on the literary level, it would have required a coincidence of plot timing of the sort I have been much criticized-for, in the past.

Much more importantly, on the literary level, it would have proved an interruption to the story I was telling, not a part of the story I was telling.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, Is there a map of the World of the Five Gods that also includes the locations for the Penric and Desdemona stories? I know you have mentioned that Chalion and Ibra are loosly based on the Iberian peninsula (inverted), does the similarity to Europe end there? I kind of imagine that Weald is somewhere around Germany, and Cedonia maybe Italy, am I way off?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Cedonia is vaguely Greece and Italy munged together. This world lacks an Italian peninsula as such, although I posit a chain of islands in their place.

I have not yet devised a map for this region, as I haven't finished making it up yet. Stories have to pass through to call their landscapes into existence.

The Weald as an inverted sort-of Germany is correct, and Penric's native cantons are vaguely Swiss. Further correspondences may or may not happen, depending on my tales' needs for pre-fab world-building. People should not get too carried away with matching games; this is not historical fiction with the serial numbers filed off, for all that I may use dismembered bits of history as plausible (or, sometimes, completely incredible, because history offers a lot of no-one-could-make-this-up moments) jumping-off points.

Ta, L.
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Lowis, you are an amazing writer. I've been a fan of your Vorcosigan books for a few years now. And since I adore your writing, I thought I'd give the Sharing Knife a try. They are fabulous books! My question is, do you see yourself writing another Sharing Knife novel in future, or is that definitely it?
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't have anything in mind for more in the Sharing Knife world at this time, no.

I take my projects one at a time, these days, and don't try to block out (or block off) the future. So I don't give definite yesses or nos. (Well, whenever something is finished in first draft, I'll likely start to mention it.)

Ta, L.
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Who is your favorite fictional couple, and why?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm quite fond of Eugenedes and Irene from Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief series (starting with The Thief, and this series should be read in strict order), for their understated complexity.

Ta, L.
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Any regrets/second thoughts a la Rowling saying Harry should have ended up with Hermione? For example I've never been able to reconcile Aral having Carl executed. Any terran place I can use as a mental picture of Cordelia's bay? Thought about it driving some of the California coast and wondered.
Lois McMaster Bujold Since most of the subsequent plots of the books hinge on that particular newbie-regent mistake of Aral's, I'm afraid poor Carl is doomed without reprieve.

I was thinking of early Sydney Harbor for Cordelia's cove. If the family manages to hang on to that stretch of shoreline for a century or two, the property values are going to be astonishing.

Ta L.
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I love reading your passages about the balls at Gregor's residence. I imagine myself there, observing all my favorite characters. I'm unsure about the music. Is it classical? For instance, what do you hear in your head when they are participating in a mirror dance?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hm. In the very formal venue of the Residence, classical, waltz 'n schmaltz, rather military march-ish when they want to liven the dance up. Think Russian folk dances, also. (Interesting speculation what Gregor listens to when by himself, on his Imperial headphones, but I bet it's not more of that.)

What Barrayaran popular music generally consists of, post-Time-of-Isolation, is another question, with a much more varied answer, especially over a century of time. Marching bands not-military are a thing mentioned, and competitions for same, leading to really complicated drills (and trills.) We've seen folk music by actual folk, up in the Dendarii Mountains, at least. Plus all those galactic influences and fads pouring in, mixing things up. I expect the music scene on Barrayar is very lively and much debated/argued-about. Puts me in mind of a character mentioned in, iirc, the Liavek fantasies, as a celebrated theater critic and duelist...

Ta, L.
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Name check: did you see yourself referenced in this Forbes article? http://www.forbes.com/sites/hayleycuccinello/2017/02/10/fifty-shades-of-green-how-fanfiction-went-from-dirty-little-secret-to-money-machine/#5321b09e2664 Love your work. Thanks for many hours of enjoyment!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, saw that, blogged it. Very... bemusing.

Ta, L.
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Did you plan the progression of the temples in the world of the five gods or was it serendipity? The four square temples with the extra tower where Chalionese Quintarians replace Roknari Quadrenes through a vaguely impressive Easthome temple and various nook temples and a clear description of the Martensbridge six lobed flower in a flourish of impressive Darthacan design?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I figured the temple designs and decorations should vary by regions, their climates, building materials, and histories. In the Ibran peninsula, where temples keep changing hands as the endemic wars move over them, being able to alter allegiances without having to tear down the whole building is more parsimonious. Smaller wooden temples can get away with a pentagonal design, but once one hits the weight of stone buildings, stresses must be more carefully balanced, hence 5 sides plus devoted entry = a more even 6. Wooden carvings where wood is abundant, stone and mosaics and frescoes where it is not. And so on, as my invention holds up, my stories meander geographically, and my historical reading matter inspires or informs (or corrects.)

Ta, L.
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What's the secret meaning of Taura? Is Rish a child's mispronunciation of Lapis Lazuli or something else?
Lois McMaster Bujold Taura is Miles's notion of the feminine form of Taurus, for the Minotaur found at the heart of the Labyrinth.

I don't know where the name/nickname Rish came from; I don't think it's a mispronunciation, no.

Ta, L.
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Influences on the imagery in Cazaril's, erm, epiphany? I suspect Huxley's 'The Doors of Perception'.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Never read it, so, no.

As a general rule, readers inclined to the game of "spot the sources" tend to ascribe influences based on what they know, not on what the author knows/knew. Academics are possibly the worst offenders. (Though they can be right twice a day.)

Ta, L.
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Is there any way to send you mail, or to write a letter that might get to you? Agents, publisher, anything like that?
Lois McMaster Bujold You can send me e-mail through the Goodreads messaging system -- if you can figure out how to work it. There may be snags, such as having to be friended or something first; more experienced Goodreaders maybe able to chime in on the protocols.

I much prefer e-mail to snail mail, as it is vastly easier to answer.

Ta, L.
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Is it my imagination, or should there be five Chalion novels? I mean, The Curse of Chalion is the Daughter's book, Paladin of Souls is the Bastard's, The Hallowed Hunt is the Son's — the hardcovers are even bound in the gods' colours — so are there two more planned for the Father and the Mother? Somehow I picture a murder mystery and something set in a plague hospital.
Lois McMaster Bujold
At one time, I had plans in that direction, but the books seriously failed to materialize. Really, both gods ought to be fraught with possibilities, but neither seem to be speaking to me. No juice.

At the moment, I'm finding Penric and Desdemona's slightly more comic tone to be more congenial. And their shorter lengths way less daunting and exhausting.

Ta, L.
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I just finished all of your Vorkosigan books and I loved them! For the majority of them I listened to the audio version during my commute to and from work. There were to items that seem to have changed pronunciation as the series progressed. Dendarii changed from den-der-ee, to d den-der-ee-eye. Galeni changed from guh-len-eye to guh-len-ee. Can you tell me which are the most appropriate? Thanks! Andy
Lois McMaster Bujold
The recordings were made in different orders, some before the narrator was able to catch up with me for pronunciations. So I'm not surprised it's a bit random. Dendarii is den-DARE-ee, Galeni is gah-LEE-ni.

Ta, L.
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I live in the Twin Cities area, fortunately close to you. Do you have a schedule of public appearances where I could shake your hand and thank you in person for your wonderful work?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm going to have a couple of things coming up in mid-March in honor of "Penric and the Shaman", at Dreamhaven and Uncle Hugo's respectively. I'll be putting the details up on my blog sometime in the next few days, when they are all firmed up.

I've also committed to Convergence, the July 4th-ish (6th - 9th) big con this summer.

We'll have to see about the hand; I'm slated for some surgery on it in late March. We might just have to wave at each other. (-:


Ta, Lois.
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Where did you get the inspiration for the planet name "Zoave Twilight"? To what does it refure?
Lois McMaster Bujold I made it up for the sound of it, and in some small part because the letter I was using for a placeholder in the first draft while I was thinking up yet another name was "Z". It has no outside referent.

Ta, L.
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Hey Lois. First off, praying that your surgery goes well next month! From all of us I'm sure, please stay safe! My Q is: How do you personally approach poetry? Specifically, how do you translate your experience with poetry into your writing? The 5 Gods stuff is sometimes so stunningly lyrical that I had to wonder. I'm reading Aniara by Harry Martenson and it made me think of the Cetagandans taking art to its limits.
Lois McMaster Bujold I read a certain amount of poetry in my younger days, some of which sticks with me. I've not read much lately, but I suppose it's in there as an influence underneath somewhere.

We all listen to a lot more poetry daily than we realize, because song lyrics are nothing but that. People who say "poetry doesn't sell" are overlooking the multi-billion-dollar music industry.

Ta, L.
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how come there is still no movie made from all your astonishing novels?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You'll have to ask the movie makers that question. It's not up to me.

(That said, making a movie from my writing would be a lot harder than it looks at first glance, due to the fact that so much of what is interesting is going on inside the characters' heads, nearly impossible to show from the outside.)

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, Thank you for all the excellent hours of reading over the years. I really have to force myself to slow down when you have a new release because it's always bittersweet to wait a year or more for a book and then finish it in a day. I'm really enjoying penric. I'd write more, but I have to get to my question. Do you have any recommendations for someone looking for a new author to read?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, my standard answer to this question lately has been Megan Whalen Turner and Ben Aaronovitch. In older work, Georgette Heyer can still be fun. Jennifer Crusie for more contemporary. If you are looking to widen your scope into manga, some of the works of CLAMP are pretty good. Some of theirs are misses for me, but the cross-connected series xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle really worked for me, eventually, although they take considerable commitment to unravel. I have a review section up around here somewhere... ah.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Although, of course, not everything reviewed is recommended or appropriate for all audiences.

Ta, L.
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Not a question, just a Thankyou. I am really enjoying the Penric novellas, not just for the content (which is excellent) but also for the Serial Form, it takes me back to being a kid when serial instalments where all the go and, even though we would be hanging out for the "next instalment" we didn't have to wait ages for another exciting adventure. Love having a really good read more frequently. Thanks Lois!?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm having fun with them too, although I'm making no promises as to frequency. But the chance at a lot of variety is enticing. (Of course, for that one also needs a character who is capable of supporting more than one sort of story.) Also, for me the beginning of writing a novel is generally something fresh, and the end is rewarding, but the middle is a slog. Novellas have a lot less middle.

The new e-markets have really opened up more potential variety for story length, as well. In the days of the paper magazines, the issues couldn't fit in very many novellas. In the more recent years of publishing, editors needed big bricks so as to be able to justify the big prices required to cover all their costs. For original e-books and stories, nothing has to be stretched or padded or truncated to fit any particular economic model. It reminds me of that quip, "How long are your legs?" "Long enough to reach the ground." E-tales can be just long enough to reach the ground.

Ta, L.
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How do you pronounce Nikys?
Lois McMaster Bujold NICK-eez

Ta, L.
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As someone who loves physical books, but who missed the limited-edition Penric publication (and who prefers paperbacks whenever possible anyway-- they fit better when being carried everywhere) are we ever likely to see a collected set of the Penric novellas? (And will there be more? I'll admit, they're getting more and more "but what happens next?" as they continue. ;) Not that I'm complaining, Pen & Des rock.)
Lois McMaster Bujold There may be a couple of collections in the future, but it will be the rather far future. Breath-holding is still contraindicated. This is my semi-retirement project, after all.

There might be more, maybe. Sometime. If and when there is, I will certainly tell y'all.

I admit, I'm finding my own Kindle easier to carry around, although I'm still terribly afraid I will drop/break/lose it somehow. Also, it's like having an instant bookstore/library in my purse. The expandable type for my eyes and light weight/lack of need to hold pinched open for my increasingly arthritic hands are also a plus.

Ta, L.
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As with all your characters, I wonder where they, physically and emotionally, go after the book. Do Cordelia & Jole have a wedding, with all the possibilities of it comedicly going mis-aright? What happens when one is posted off-planet?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sounds like a job for FanficWoman. Or FanficMan, I suppose. (Although don't ask, don't tell -- me at least.)

More seriously, it is a good thing when one's world-building, not to mention character-building, appears to readers to run past the edge of the page or the end of the book. It suggests they have actually become engaged with one's art, which is kind of the goal.

To answer your more specific questions, Cordelia and Jole never marry, although after 20 or more years of it they might as well be, and neither gets posted off planet (although they may travel) because they are both very soon out of the sorts of jobs that can compel such things.

(Though it does occur to me that their 20th anniversary will be a strange frisson for Jole, because it will mark the beginning of more years than he'd been with Aral, and their 40th ditto for Cordelia. After that it's Sergyar Incognita for both.)

Ta, L.
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While reading "The Lies of Locke Lamora" I came across a section with the upper class in danger. I was instantly reminded of a passage that I loved where the upper class reacted bravely and magnificently to danger. I am 90% sure you wrote it. Are you able to tell me approximately what section, of which of my Vorkosigan books I may find it? Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm afraid not. There are a few comments sprinkled here and there, variously cynical or sincere (or both) on the subject of the Vor at war, but I have no idea which may be the one you are thinking of. Or where to find them. Remember, I wrote some of those books over 30 years ago.

Ta, L.
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Is it possible you will ever write a sequel to "The Spirit Ring"? I have unfortunately at the moment run out of Lois McMaster Bujold books at the moment! Chris Farber Vancouver, Canada
Lois McMaster Bujold No such plans at this time. Just now I'm on a kick for the Penric novellas; after that, who knows, but I'm more likely to move forward than circle back.

Ta, L.
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Hello! Do you have any plans to do a reading in Seattle in the near future? I would love to host you at the Central Library in downtown Seattle!
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I am doing very little travel at present. (Seattle's a great town, though.)

Ta, L.
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Do you follow any online authors? I enjoy a few, like Drew Hayes, who post a couple chapters a week from his latest work. Allowing fans to act as beta readers, before the final polish. Another good one is Wildbow. Since they write just for online, they aren't restricted in length and write until the story is told. I think Worm, (https://parahumans.wordpress.com), is the best one. It's about equal to 10 books.
Lois McMaster Bujold Not at present; time (and attention) does not permit.

That 24/7 is a hard limit...

Ta, L.
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During a meandering discussion of the progress of publishing technologies, a reader on my chat list came up with a question about paper consumption over the years. I thought you all might be interested in the answer, too... ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My paper consumption has varied over the years. In the beginning, it was a 3-ring notebook and some pencils, a laboriously typed first draft with two carbons (one for Pat and one for Lillian) and a final draft ditto (but not dittoed.) I could not afford photocopying.

Paper consumption went up as I entered the computer years, and could print out test readers' copies at will. My agent also needed two copies of the final, one for the publisher, one to be photocopied multiple times for foreign submissions and shipped overseas. So during the 90s, one novel could consume a nearly 10-ream carton of paper, and that was just on my end. Not to mention keeping the post office busy lugging it all back and forth.

Around the turn of the millennium, I started submitting e-files to Baen, often with a paper copy backup as well. It took a long time for the supporting paper copies to drop out, as publishers gradually joined the 20th Century, or rather, old staffers retired or died and were replaced by newer ones. It's only in the past few years that my submissions process, including to and by my agent, has become entirely paperless.

It's also only in the last few years that my writing has become paperless. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen was the first novel I wrote without making a complete running printout, punched and put in a binder as I went, although I still printed certain sections for various purposes. So it's only as I reached the Penric tales that I have started to use no paper at all, except to print out a section to take to a reading or something.

My recent galleys have all come as pdf files, too. It took me a bit to get used to that, but I've converted now. (It probably also helps a lot that I now have less unwieldy computers with better screens to read them on. My new Lenovo X1 Yoga is downright addictive. It does splendid things for manga.) Don't underestimate the impact the improvements in reading devices have had on fostering all this.

So on my end, a case of paper has dropped to a fraction of a ream, over the past... urk, it can't be 20 years...?

At my last move, three years ago, I donated a whole packed bedroom of manuscripts, paper files and whatnot to the collection at Northern Illinois University; better them than me. I lugged all that stuff after me for years, and I so don't miss it now.

Ta, L.
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Does the Carol Cowan & Michael Hanson narrated version of the novella "Borders of Infinity" still exist? I only see the solo-voiced version with Grover Gardner listed anywhere. Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold Only used. The Reader's Chair went out of business years ago, alas.

Ta, L.
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Your reviews of manga are always fun to read. Have you noticed any interesting differences or similarities between Japanese and western storytelling?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes.

Longer answer must wait till my hand heals.

Note the two do cross-pollinate, in both directions, and have been doing so for well over a century, making the question more complex than it looks.

Ta, L.
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I'm really enjoying the Penric novellas; thank you for writing them and taking us back to the world of the five gods. Much of my reading these days is done via audiobook and I was wondering if you knew whether Mira's Last Dance was going to come out in audio format as well?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes; Blackstone just picked it up.

More specific news will be on my blog when there is some.

Ta,L.
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On your book tour for Cryoburn (I think), you did a reading from something you were working on at the time. It involved Enrique and the edges of the radioactive zones near Vorkosigan Vashnoi. I haven't encountered this snippet, or anything even remotely like it, in anything you've published since. Did anything ever come of that story? Is it likely to? (Please say yes!)
Lois McMaster Bujold Presently, that story-start lies dead in the files. Or at least cryofrozen. So, no breath-holding.

Ta, L.
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I've tried to picture what a nerve-disruptor would look like, and find a conflict between descriptions of it's parabolic bell-shaped muzzle and the ease with which wielders of the weapon are able to holster and aim them. I appreciate that it would loom larger-than-life for anyone looking down the business-end of one and that most descriptions are from that perspective. How big are they really?
Lois McMaster Bujold As you like. Note the parabola could well be something that unfurls or deploys when the weapon is activated/powered on.

Ta, L.
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I just read on tvtropes "Lois McMaster Bujold mentioned once that she absolutely detests most of the covers of her Vorkosigan Saga books. She managed to veto one cover and replace it for something more tasteful... and that became her lowest selling book. She said she'd stick to writing and let the designers do their work from then on." Is this true?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not as relayed, no. But I have mixed in trying to improve my covers from time to time, and it has never helped. I mostly don't try anymore.

I am more relaxed about it all in these later days, when I no longer imagine a bad cover will sink my whole career. (Well, maybe that Paladin of Souls one in Britain, but I gave up on the UK market years ago.)

Ta, L.
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Two questions. 1. Why did you decide against sentient alien species in your Vorkosiverse? 2. I don't remember any mention of indigenous animal life on Barrayar. I'm assuming there was some? Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold 1) Somewhere about the middle of the first draft of Shards of Honor, and 2) yes, the misnamed "bugs", horned hoppers, some unnamed sea life on the shore of Kyril Island, other bits along the way. Alas, nothing big and exciting like Barrayaran were-tigers or anything. The vegetation gets described repeatedly.

At one point, very early on in the story development, I'd toyed with the idea of an alien contact/invasion to keep my two protagonists working together but apart for the second half of the book, but the Barrayaran war idea worked much better, more intrinsically. I was also interested in exploring the bioengineered-future all-the-aliens-were-us trope. The Barrayar stories give a snapshot of that very long-range project just begining.

Ta, L.
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In one of your previous answers, you mention having given up on the UK market years ago. As someone currently living in the UK, I'm curious: Why was that? Was it only due to bad book covers?
Lois McMaster Bujold Four different UK book publishers over two decades failed to sell my books to their satisfaction (or mine). The last-but-one forgot that they had bought three books from me, and would not have published them at all except that we prodded them as the license was about to expire. Just as the line was dying; the editor brought in to oversee this demise didn't even bother to read them in order to write cover copy, but just cobbled something together from online reviews. Sales (once they bothered to print them) were microscopic. The last publisher dropped my series midway because they failed to sell enough copies, which they phrased as, the book failed to sell enough copies.

That book was Paladin of Souls, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel, and a NYTimes bestseller. Yeah.

I don't know what's wrong with British publishers versus me, but it was plain by then that it was nothing I could fix by writing better or faster or anything else under my actual control to do.

Happily, my direct-placement e-books have given me a way to route completely around the UK publishers and book distribution and reach readers directly. My e-titles on iTunes and Amazon UK have been selling modestly but steadily since 2011, with no sign of slacking off. As more UK readers get into e-books, I expect that to continue.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen that book 5 of the Queen's Thief series (Megan Whalen Turner) is coming out in May? I found out about this series through you. Also, I don't know if you care for podcasts, but a main character of the S-town podcast reminded me a bit of Miles if his life had taken a different tack. It's good listening and I'd love to know what you think of it should you happen to give it a try!
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, I did know about the upcoming Turner -- it sounds very interesting. I probably won't get to a podcast due to my 24/7 being already pretty full, but it's good to know such things exist.

Ta, L.
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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/25/artificial-womb-for-premature-babies-successful-in-animal-trials-biobag Have you seen this? Also, I've been recommending your series to all my friends because we were having discussions about the societal implications of artificial wombs and cryofreezing. So thank you for hours of entertainment and education!
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, we're still a long way from Beta Colony -- but not as far as some people think. This isn't imaginary biology, the way my wormholes are imaginary physics.

Ta, L.
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Did you see this version? It's at www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421734/artificial-womb-fetus-biobag-uterus-lamb-sheep-birth-premie-preterm-infant (Kept getting error msg so truncated the url.). Don't think they gave credit where it is darned well due, however.
Lois McMaster Bujold I wouldn't go overboard with the credit if I were you. Aldous Huxley was playing with the trope, which has become standard genre furniture, as early as 1932. He was using it for quite different narrative purposes than I was, true. (Exploring some peculiarly British class issues, metaphorically, if I recall from my one reading of, good grief, half a century ago.)

Not to mention fantasy precursors as far back as the Mahabharata, though I'm not sure how to count those.

Ta, L.
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Reading Mirror Dance. "The Count (Aral) pointed out his father, mother, brother, sister, and his Vorkosigan grandparents." Even after reading most of the Vorkosigan books at least thrice, I can not remember ever hearing about Aral having a sister. Is she mentioned in any other books? Was she at the massacre, dying along with Aral's brother and mother?
Lois McMaster Bujold She died at the massacre, and I can't tell you anything else about her. Iirc she was supposed to be younger than Aral, but who knows. Alas for a character whose only shot at existence is a throw-away line...

Ta, L.
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Have you seen this? First stage uterine replicator is online! https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/25/artificial-womb-for-premature-babies-successful-in-animal-trials-biobag
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes. As has been pointed out by someone, it's still a long way to a tech that goes from IVF to live birth, but it may well be a start on closing the gap.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, Had to share this: https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421734/artificial-womb-fetus-biobag-uterus-lamb-sheep-birth-premie-preterm-infant ?:)
Lois McMaster Bujold A lot of folks must have seen that news... It's a step, but there is still a long way to go before maternal mortality and morbidity becomes a thing of the past.

Ta, L.
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Amazing - https://futurism.com/videos/breaking-scientists-create-an-artificial-womb/ - Uterine replicator, anyone?
Lois McMaster Bujold Ayup. See below in "most recent" order for comments.

While this incrementally closes the gap between IVF and live birth, it won't be a real UR till it does. Some more decades, methinks.

Ta, L.
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Apropos of the recent news about the artificial womb, after the uterine replicator, what SF technology would you most like to exist? A short answer is fine - hope your hand is healing well! [Also, you've answered so many questions, 395 of them to date, Goodreads needs to let us search through your Q&As to minimize duplicates!]
Lois McMaster Bujold Probably, very cheap high-output non-polluting power generation. With that, all else becomes possible. Eventually.

Ta, L.

(Hand is healing more slowly than I'd hoped, grump.)
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Not a question, but I'd like to pass on an article published yesterday on extra-uterine gestation (https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15112; Summary at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/04/artificial-womb-lambs-premature-babies-health-science/) published yesterday that immediately brought you to mind. Never thought I would see this in my lifetime! Interested?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks, again.

Ta, L.
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Do you know if the paperback reprint of Borders of Infinity includes the interactions between Simon and Miles? It is one of the few things I don't own in the series. Reviews and summaries are very confusing because they include various printings and various formats for the various reprinting of both the story and the book.
Lois McMaster Bujold All editions of the 3-novella collection Borders of Infinity include the framing story between the 3 sections. Do not confuse the collection with the (also published independently as an e-book) single novella "The Borders of Infinity", which contains that story only.

(If I had known how much confusion it was going to create 25 years later, I would have titled the collection something else, but it is now Too Late.)

Ta, L.
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Will you be attending Worldcon in Helsinki this year?
Lois McMaster Bujold I am not planning to go, but I can absolutely recommend Helsinki, and Finland, to those who are. Allow time to look around! (I can personally rec the National History Museum on Mannerheimintie as a strategic place to start.)

Somewhere in Sidelines is my 2012 trip report in full, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Ta, L.
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Is Aral's middle name Selig, making it actually little Selig's middle name? If so, what is his first name? Or is it Grandpa Sasha's middle name? Or did they not go with tradition? I know it's certainly a name in Vorkosigan history. You use a lot of British idioms in the V books - is that to give them a certain "not from around here" flavor, or just phrases you yourself use, or?
Lois McMaster Bujold I believe I finally decided Aral's middle name was Xav.

The naming convention cited is a custom, not a law; it's common but not invariable. Despite Miles's self-interested pitch to Mark that time. (Miles in hot pursuit of an agenda is not a reliable source.)

The Britishisms are a combo of "not from around here", a nod to Barrayar's founder population and history, and an effect of me reading so much Brit lit.
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Lois - this is a little bit tongue in cheek, but Have you seen these? http://www.sciencealert.com/features/20142208-26056-2.html They remind me of the mewing kittens growing on a tree (much to Ivan's disgust)
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh. Interesting.

Ta, L.
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I'm 66 and have been diagnosed with macula degeneration. I've begun listening to audiobooks to allow my eyes to rest. I'm not sure what I'll do as a writer, however, if my eyesight fails. You've mentioned some eyesight problems, too, Lois, and I wonder if you've tried any software to help writing that is not so taxing on your eyes? Have you tried dictation software, or other helps?
Lois McMaster Bujold Ah, my mother had that one. No fun.

I have a writer friend with eye problems who is doing a lot of audiobook listening now, too. At least the offerings are hugely more abundant these days, with e-downloads.

At present, I am merely rationing my reading time. (Or should be. I know I've been overdoing it when I start seeing double through one eye.) I expect I'll be forced to more self-discipline in due course. My creative process is very visual and kinesthetic, seeming to demand written notes and visual feedback; I'm not sure how much of a stretch trying to put my lagging audio brain into the loop would be, but I'd need to be more desperate than this. So, no advice on audio writing aids from me yet, but maybe others could chime in in the comments?

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I just finished reading Ethan of Athos, and I wanted to ask if you ever plan to follow up on the story. How might Athos have turned out after 3 or 4 generations... Spoiler Space ...with the telepath genes ?
Lois McMaster Bujold No plans at this time to follow up. The problem of imagining all the possibilities is left, as they say, for the student.

Ta, L.
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I can understand you not wanting to write another book. I was rereading Brother in Arms and Mirror Dance; seems they would have been intense. And all your newer books are full sized. Have you thought about a series of short stories or novellas to continue the Miles universe? A little Miles, a little Simon or Alys, a little Cordelia, a little Ivan, a little Gregor? Or even focus on little stories about their children?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not at this time.

(Must note, Brothers in Arms and Mirror Dance were written a long time ago; late 80s and mid-90s respectively. My whole life then was intense.)

Ta, L.
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I've been re-reading your Penric novellas, enjoying them all over again. Will there be more? Nikys is such a wonderful character.
Lois McMaster Bujold I would like there to be more, too. Things are slow at present due to the hand-surgery thing, which has taken far more recovery time than I anticipated. Also, still semi-retired. I have some broad ideas; it's the work and detail work that's the block just now. Also, it's summer outside! It's Minnesota, don't blink!

Ta, L.
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I feel like Vorkosigan is closed off - which is fine, you lived and breathed that world for a long, long time. But I can't be the only one who wants a By on Jackson's Whole novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm sure you're not. (-:

You might check out the fanfic scene. Someone may have agreed with you.

Ta, L.
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2 Qs for 2 series - 1 - Can Sara have children now, post-curse? Her potential for a Paladin/GJRQ style post-denouement adult adventure, maybe involving children with her second, lower-ranked love interest has been occurring to me lately for some reason so thought I'd ask. The "Mother" book? :) 2 - What was the reason behind making Cordelia, scientific character as she is, a religious believer? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
1 - Physically, perhaps; Sara's in her mid-30s when last seen by her narrative. I don't think she'd want to. Being mistress of her own estate, and far away from the scenes of her former pain, may be enough for her. (But you may imagine whatever you like; published canon offers no constraints.)

2 - That's just how Cordelia walked onto the page. Not reason or consequence or author agenda, merely initial condition. There are plenty of sound scientists out there who also quietly hold religious beliefs. (Guy Consolmagno, SJ, for a case in point -- you can likely look him him up. MIT grad and Vatican astronomer.) It's just that the noisy nutbars get all the press.

Ta, L.
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Some authors have chosen writers to continue their story lines, either as co-authors or in their own names. Have you considered doing that with the Vorkosigan saga?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is not something that I would care to do.

Though not for lack of having been asked. But it runs very counter to the series' thematic structure (yes, it has one), and even more counter to the intuitive way I write. It would not only be far more work, and much less fun, than writing tales myself, it would block my work on other, newer things, dragging me backward. Not a win from my point of view.

Ta, L.
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Hi. Thank you for the many many hours of entertainment you've provided me over the last 20 years! I'm thouroughly enjoying the penric stories now. I noticed that unlike the first 3 penric stories, the 4th one (which I'm still reading) happens just after the 3rd one. Just curious, is there a plan to continue in that way, or did that just happen for this story that wasn't finished at the end of book 3?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying Pen & Des! So am I, thus far.

Part of my, hm, not plan but hope for the Penric tales is to keep the series structure as loose as possible. (Think how, say, the original Sherlock Holmes stories work by accumulation while stitching back and forth in the characters' lives, although they have the card-up-the-sleeve of Watson's after-the-fact narration.) I'd like to be able to jump around in Pen's timeline at will, although my prior experience does show if one jumps too far forward too fast it tends to block off sectors for development, so there are some limits on that score. But not nearly as many as with more rigid sequential-chronological structures. See The Sharing Knife tetralogy for a worked example at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I do plan/hope to do more with Pen in Cedonia, but those ideas aren't quite ripe yet.

Ta, L.
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That you might find this interesting. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1627036884004152&id=1010847105623136
Lois McMaster Bujold
This looks like someone's art project.

That said, maybe in the future...

Ta, L.
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I've noticed that none of your Vorkosigan novels are available on Overdrive, except as audiobooks. Is that a publisher decision? I love this series and it would be great to have them available for our library patrons who prefer e-books.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'd like to get my self-pubbed books on Overdrive, yes, but my current helpers are not set up for it, and I'm not up to doing it by myself. So it's a hung project at present.

The audio books are placed in Overdrive through and by Blackstone, good on 'em. And, I believe, HarperCollins have placed my fantasies from them.

Ta, L.
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Do you ever travel to attend cons? Such as the ones in the Baltimore or DC area?
Lois McMaster Bujold I used to, but I am doing very, very few cons these days. Part of my semi-retirement is retirement from PR/public speaking, which would eat my life if I let it.

Ta, L.
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Did you use George Gallie Nasmith as a basis for Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since I've never heard of him, no.

If he's that inventor of basketball, still no.

Ta, L.
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Any chance of a collector's edition or new version of the Vorkosigan Saga books that can be acquired as a set (boxed or otherwise)? I'd love to own (and be able to buy as gifts) the whole series in paper form... without having to hunt down each individual paperback (first world problems, I know - just wishful thinking). As a side note, I never thought the original covers quite did your writing justice.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen is doing quite a nice trade paperback reprint series -- they have the first five books out now. Starts here:

https://www.amazon.com/Shards-Honor-V...

No box sets planned, no.

Also, NESFA Press has the first eight titles (which were original paperbacks when they first came out) as nice hardcover reprints, although that only goes up a till my first printings started coming out as hardcovers.

Ta, Lois.
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Okay, this may be a weird question. I'm reading "Falling Free" and one of the characters said "trade him in for a dog and shoot the dog". This had me gasping for breath! That is a phrase I have only heard from my mother, who learned it from her mother. Where did you pick it up?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mark Twain, or thereabouts, iirc. It goes back a _long_ way.

Ta, L.
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Look Forward to any new books from you. I have reread "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance" many time. I hope he will be a major player in your next book and how he get along with his varied family member. You are still a beautiful lady and a wonderful author. I hope to read many new books written by you. Have you ever considered mentoring s young author?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you enjoy my writing!

I've experimented with doing workshops and other teaching gigs in the past, but I am not comfortable with them. Much of my semi-retirement consists of bowing out of such PR-related tasks.

Ta, L.
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When coming up with the concept of the "black gang" for Mark, did you do any psychology research first, was there some personal experience at play, or is it strictly what you've absorbed from the media? Either way it's pretty convincing. Reading his internal monologues and external explanations has helped me have compassion for a loved one recently diagnosed with trauma-based dissociative identity, so thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm pleased you found Mark convincing. You apparently aren't the only one; the story was once referenced in an article in an actual academic tome -- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

As far as sources go, All Of The Above pretty much covers it.

However inadvertently, I'm also glad the story helped you deal with your own challenges.

Ta, L.
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I love your work as many do. I was wondering if you ever plan to definitively end the Vorkosigan Series? I want it to continue forever, again as many do, but I also realize that all good things come to an end. You are one of my favorite science-fiction authors because you infuse such realism into your world and characters. In the real world there aren't any definitive endings, and so I wonder, what is to come?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the real world, indeed, there aren't any definitive endings. That's one of its many differences from fiction.

A present, I prefer to leave the series as it stands.

It does make me wonder, though -- how many kinds of things do different readers parse as an "ending"? (I mean, besides the writer dropping dead, which in this world of publisher work-for-hire extensions isn't even a sure bet.) Anyone want to say in the comments?

Observations of series dragged out beyond their natural ends can be instructive, as well. I touched on this a little somewhere in the recent manga and anime discussion on my blog.

Ta, L.
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I've been listening to an excellent podcast about WWI and the diplomatic/military complexity of the situation is astounding. What historical influences/texts helped you to form the mindsets of Aral, Piotr, and Miles? I love the way they strategize and plan. They make me think of many different generals and tacticians, and I would love to read those auto/biographies. I wish to plumb the depths of your mind.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My mind has no wish to be plumbed at this time, nor even have wiring run in, but off the top I can direct you to T. E. Lawrence, Basil Liddell Hart, John Keegan, and Barbara Tuchman.

Probably about a hundred more historians and memoirists (first-hand accounts are way the best) whose names escape me without a major spelunking. I read a lot of this stuff back in my teens, when WWII was still saturating the zeitgeist, and my 20s. I was recently reminded of Bat Bomb by Jack Couffer, my fave WWII memoir, although it has no actual war in it. Unless you count burning down the army air corps base.

I don't think you realize how far down and murky the depths of my mind are by now. A lot of my references are reduced to hand-waving and things like, "that memoir by the youngest paratrooper general (oh, Gavin), or "that appalling account of the Bataan death march" (could be any of many), or "the one by the Pacific pilot (Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, aha!) or "the one about the Flying Tigers", or, "the one about the borked first landing in Italy", or... And so on.

You could just take it chronologically, and start with Thucydides, I suppose. Or Herodotus. I can't say that either informed my mind that much, but I guarantee many of the military geeks you wish to study, studied them. Have not read Julius Caesar, but he still has works in print, too.

Ta, L.
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In "Komarr," Miles reflects that Nikki having had Vorzohn's Dystrophy will bar him from military service as a jump pilot even if he gets treated before he shows symptoms. The clinic said that with retrogenes, he would never develop symptoms, so is there a reason the treated disease would render him ineligible for joining the Service? Or is it ingrained Barryaran prejudice about mutations, just being slow to change?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Slow to change; standards for military pilots tend to be stricter; and employers generally want to duck any perceived risk of health-care costs.

Ta, L.
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Do you ever find yourself smirking or chuckling as one of your characters does or says something particularly clever during your writing process? It seems to me that in your place, I'd be hard put not to, but that's colored of course by the end product, not the process.
Lois McMaster Bujold "Snickering" is probably the right word. After all, if it's not funny to me, why should it be funny to anyone else?

Crying is much more rare, but very valuable when it occurs. If it doesn't move me, etc.

Bouncing around the room yelping in wicked glee is also a good sign.

There are reasons writers are better off working alone...

Ta, L.
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How did Barryar not have a population crisis after the time of isolation with scads more women escaping to freedom in other places? It seems like you wouldn't have to be a mercenary to get away, there'd be a thriving human trafficking operation going on like in the former Soviet block countries where women would rather be prostitutes or mail order brides to men in less heinous countries than to stay where they are.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't, really, have a 30-volume set of the Encyclopedia Barrayarica (with commentaries) in my garage, so readers are free to speculate about questions like this as best suits their needs. (They will anyway, I have discovered.)

Ta, L.
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What is the status of Miles's children on Cetaganda? Are they haut? How would they be received when visiting as young adults?
Lois McMaster Bujold
They are considered Barrayaran Vor, and would be received as visiting foreign VIPs (or dependents of same.)

(Well, someone like Benin might see them as equivalent to live grenades, but that's a different consideration.)

Miles's genes being formally taken up by the Star Creche doesn't make him socially or politically haut (nor would he consent to such a conscription); they would not be used entire, after all, just taken under close consideration.

Ta, L.
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Has someone else taken over the SoftWear authorized merchandise (http://www.softwear-tnt.com/loisbujold.html) since they seem to no longer be active? "Bharaputra Laboratories", "Koudelka All-Blonde Commando Team", "Barrayaran Imperial Military Academy", etc, I would love to purchase some of these items.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no idea what is going on with SoftWear. I believe Steve Salaba is still active in the fan community in the Chicago (?) area, but he may not be doing dealer's room vending stuff anymore. Anyone who knows more is welcome to answer.

Ta, L.
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I'm a compulsive rereader of the Vorkosigan series, and I've wondered about the story of the 50,000 firsters. Is that a story you might be interested in telling some day? Rob Yale
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can only answer as usual: not at this time.

In general (though not always) my books start and grow with interest in a character, not some sweep of events.

Ethan of Athos is an exception of sorts, since it began with the question, "What else can I do with this SFnal technology?" but even it didn't begin to roll out until the main character presented himself.

Ta, L.
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I am currently reading volume 1 of Manchester's "The Last Lion", and was struck by similarities in character between Miles and Winston Churchill. I thought wistfully about a story in which Miles guides the imperium through an existential crisis, perhaps as prime minister. Have you perhaps had a similar thought?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no such plans for Miles, but young Churchill was one of several threads of inspiration that went into creating him, so your instincts are correct. (Not one of the major threads, but there in the snarl somewhere.)

Ta, L.
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Lois do you know of any fictional romances, in any medium, that you consider similar to Cordelia and Aral in Shards?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not offhand, but I'll bet the commenters could chime in below...?

I'm fond of Jennifer Crusie's smart wit, but other than that we're both writers from Ohio, I don't think most people would call our work similar.

Ta, L.
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I was lucky enough to be sent to work in the US for a couple of months back in October 1996, just in time for Memory in hardback and Cetaganda in paperback. You've mentioned before how your UK publisher dropped you after Paladin Of Souls (idiots that they were, in my opinion). I apologise if this has been asked and answered before, but how did Cetaganda not get a UK publication?
Lois McMaster Bujold No UK publisher chose to offer for it. I can't sell books to publishers who don't want them. What they were thinking, I have no idea, and it is likely too late to ask.

Happily, I now have direct e-publication of all my works in the UK, which has been holding steady and even slowly growing from its inception in 2011, as more readers discover e-books.

Note that when discussing my UK non-career, we are talking about four different publishers over time. Two of the lines, Pan and Earthlight, were discontinued while I was in them, rather like having one's horse shot out from under one, so it wasn't just me affected.

To be fair, the first mistake was mine back in the late 80s, when my (actually Baen's, at that point) then-foreign-rights agent took the VK series from Headline to Pan after book #4 for the sake of a higher advance. We should have stuck with Headline... maybe. It was all downhill from there. Too late, live and learn, etc.


Ta, L.
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Your 5 Gods books contain one of my favorite story universes. I've been tempted to read your other books. I love your character development! I haven't read them yet because I'm nervous about becoming obsessed over another series and the feeling of knowing my mind will never find peace until I devour every single book. Which should I start with next? And may the Bastard forgive me if I find another obsession. ^^ -Kalli
Lois McMaster Bujold If you like a scoop of romance in your fantasy, try The Sharing Knife tetralogy. Just four books, self-contained, so pretty self-limiting obsession-wise.

The Spirit Ring is just one book, so even safer. Quasi-historical Italy with magic.

Ta, L.
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You've mentioned before that you are a big Georgette Heyer fan. Which of her books are your favorites?
Lois McMaster Bujold Er, most of them? Could mention Cotillion, The Unknown Ajax, The Toll-Gate, Friday's Child, The Reluctant Widow, The Foundling, The Convenient Marriage... really, the list goes on.

Ta, L.
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Are you a Vorkosigan addict if? You hear "a day late and a dollar short" and think-that's a Betan expression. Something doesn't quite go the way you planned and you think-flexibility Udine. You hear actress Bella Thorne's bisexual and you think- naturally, she was named after a hermaphrodite. You hear Asian Small Clawed Otters have to eat often cuz they have a very high metabolism and you think-just like Taura.
Lois McMaster Bujold Other posters will have to chime in on this one...

Ta, L.
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Hey, I was wondering if there are any future plans to release your Penric novellas in the UK, either individually or together in a volume? I really enjoyed the three Chalion novels and would love to read the novellas - it's just that I can't get along with reading from a screen: I'm old-fashioned and need a paper book! Thanks and apologies if you have already answered this question here somewhere.
Lois McMaster Bujold
They are all out as e-books in the UK, of course. You could have them in seconds by downloading, say, the free Kindle app onto the very screen you are reading from now. Not sure what iTunes offers in that direction.

A paper volume would depend on a British paper-books publisher making an offer for them, which seems very unlikely. Even British publishers (may) have woken up enough to want e-rights with their package, which I am not foolish enough to part with. The chances of anyone in the UK wishing to do paper-only like Subterranean Press seem remote.

Note that even SubPress doesn't get books into US stores, apart from a few specialty shops. Their business model doesn't attempt to cope with the book returns system (which is a whole 'nother essay.)

(At present, my own eyes are doing better with reading off a screen than from paper print, for whatever reason. The ability to enlarge type is a boon. Holding the device comfortably in one's lap or hands is another issue, which I'm presently managing with a board/tray that is padded underneath for my laptop and a small triangular foam cushion to prop my tablet.)

Ta, L.
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Do you remember that in your August 3rd reddit AMA, I asked you a question regarding your most cherished book you ever lost? I mentioned that mine was the ARC of The Curse of Chalion that I misplaced. My wife read the AMA and secretly bought me a signed copy of the ARC as a replacement. I just wanted to let you know that there was a happy ending! (I'm not letting this copy out of my sight!)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Congratulations on your wife!

Ta, L.
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Just wanted to congratulate on winning the first ever Best Series HUGO Award for the Vorkosigan Saga. How will you celebrate?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you!

I shall likely go out to dinner with friends, at some point. We're always on for that, but we run out of birthdays.

Ta, L.
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I've wondered about actress Bella Thorne's name - and is she's free for a date?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since I don't know the actress, can't help you out.

Ta, L.
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I just purchased & downloaded Penric's Fox for my Kindle. However, Amazon showed this book as "Penric's Fox: Penric and Desdemona Book 3 [Kindle Edition]". I have already read & very much enjoyed the first 3 Penric novellas so Amazon should have listed Penric's Fox as Book 4, right? It did have the "See inside" and I could clearly see it had the text of Penric's Fox. Thanks for the Penric/Desdemona series!!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since "Penric's Fox" follows "Penric and the Shaman" in internal chronology, and the series is still pretty short, I decided to give it its proper tag and renumber the following novellas.

See: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog... for the full debate.

Also, you seem to be one behind in your Penrics -- there are now 5 novellas total. In new (as of Aug. 2017) chronological order, they are now:

Penric's Demon
Penric and the Shaman
Penric's Fox
Penric's Mission
Mira'a Last Dance.

Happy reading!

Ta, L.
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Will Penric's Fox be recorded as an audiobook? Please?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That will be up to the audiobooks company, presumably Blackstone. If/when there is anything solid to report, I'll post it.

Ta, L.
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What anime or show are you watching now?
Lois McMaster Bujold At a random mention, I found a cheap 3-season set of an old anime called Slayers, which is very much early-90s. D&D style comedy-drama, clearly aimed at younger watchers. It's not doing much for me so far, but it's something mindless to look at for a while when my left eye stops cooperating for reading.

I don't actually want to find another gripping one just now, as I have some other things to do for a bit. 24/7 and limited brainspace issue. A person must triage.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Lois. When did Cordelia’s mother and Aral first meet and did they get along? Did he finally visit Beta and did she visit them on Barrayar (as much as anyone had time for such trips)? Also, is there some sort of schedule for the re-release of the Vorkosigan books and do you know when the next one will be re-released and which one it will be? Thanks 😊
Lois McMaster Bujold It is more likely Elizabeth came to Barrayar than Aral went to Beta, although some diplomatic journey is possible toward the later, quieter part of his regency.

They would have got along all right eventually, though both would have been stiff at first, and a stiff Aral is a little hard for anyone not Cordelia or maybe Simon or Alys to read.

I haven't heard anything lately about the re-releases. You should likely ask over at Baen; they have a Facebook page and a website.

Ta, L.
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"Ethan of Athos" is one of my favorites and, perhaps, one of the most socially significant stories you've written because it demonstrates the power of encounters with the "hated other" to transform bigotry into respect. It's lack of popularity grieves me. I have wondered if a story about a planet made up of women who are equally suspicious of men (but for non-religious reasons) might be better received. Thoughts?
Lois McMaster Bujold A lot of the latter had already been written (mostly in the 60s and 70s, by both men and women) at the time I wrote Ethan of Athos, and in fact Ethan was in part a riposte to those. The fact that you'd never heard of them may answer your question?

Ethan has done pretty well to survive 31 years still in print/ebook and available, I think. Readers can still find it. As a general rule, only new books get booted up onto bestseller lists, but selling quietly for a long time can add up, too. Word-of-mouth has been the lifeblood of my career.

Ta, L.
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Since the debut of the ebook have you "punched up" the "kindle sample" beginnings of your books, because they are now effectively part of the marketing? I think books used to be like movies, which could start slowly because people had already paid (sunk cost fallacy). They are now like TV shows, that have to grab and hold flighty viewers.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm not sure I understand your question. My stories are what they are. People can take them or leave them.

Are writers actually trying to modify the openings of their stories for such purposes, now?

Ta, L.
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Do you or your agent ever submit new work to periodicals like Analog or F&SF? I have fond memories of encountering your work back when I was an Analog reader.
Lois McMaster Bujold My agent doesn't handle my short stories (of which I have written very few), and the current novellas are dedicated to my e-publication experiment. So, nothing going on in that direction at this time.

Ta, L.
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I have been reading and really enjoying the Penric novellas. What, if any, of earth's cultures and religious faiths did you use for ideas to flesh out the 5 God beliefs and rituals? I'm thinking especially of using special animals at a funeral to signal that the person's spirit had been taken up by his or her God, and which God.
Lois McMaster Bujold As far as I know, my use of the funeral animals is original, though animals do play parts in many real-world faiths.

(I am suddenly put in mind of that scene in The Rook, which I will not attempt to describe here, where two different theories of prognostication clash horribly. And hilariously, if one's sense of humor is sufficiently black. Can't remember which animal species was the one in play, alas. It might be time for a reread, now the sequel is out.)

Ta, L.
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I received a gift of Ivory Vikings -- it has the story of a man named Inleif, the first elected bishop of Iceland. He went to be consecrated after his election, but not knowing the ropes he went first to the Holy Roman Emperor. As part of his entourage he packed along a live polar bear as a gift, which he left with the emperor; did you know about Inleif and his bear when you added Fafa to the Hallowed Hunt?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, that tale or one like it (in the version I read, it was a gift to the king of Norway) is often repeated in histories of that era. Because of course. It captures the imagination in a mere sentence or two, begging so many more questions.

There may have been more than one madman of the era who thought a polar bear was a great hostess gift, who knows.

Ta, L.
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Were tasers around when you started writing the Vorkosigan saga? Every time I hear about another shooting in a police interactions, I think of your stun now, ask questions later, and hope there's not heart condition thoughts of your characters. I wish there was more training and use of tasers.
Lois McMaster Bujold I just looked up when tasers were invented; it says 1974. I thought it was later. In any case, my stunners owe more to long-time SFnal weapons like Star Trek's phasers (set to stun -- don't let your finger fumble!)

My characters, to their credit, do sometimes worry about hidden medical conditions in their targets. But we might posit that my stunners work on a different and slightly safer mode than tasers.

Ta, L.
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I am devouring the snippet like short books on Penric, excellent idea pacing them out like this and whispersyncing the ebook with the audiobook. When writing these, I always love the names you find for the protagonists (may have mentioned that earlier). It's almost sad if Penric gets shortened to Pen, though, so would you consider this compromise: use Pen in spoken language, and Penric, in full, in storytelling?
Lois McMaster Bujold After typing out "Vorkosigan" approximately one million times, I was determined that my next series protagonist should have as short a name as possible.

"Pen" vs. "Penric" is decided on the fly, according to who is speaking, in what mode, whether I'm just establishing things or am further along, sentence rhythm, and how much variation or lack-of-repetition I need in a particular passage.

(I actually made up the name "Penric", constructing it from a syllable salad, and then discovered it is also a real name. Not a common one, though.)

Unlike Tolkien, who apparently adored naming things, naming is a bit of a burden for me. It is necessary to defamiliarize names from our-world, key them to their respective distinct languages and cultures, and try not to inadvertently name people after obscure airplane parts or bad words in foreign tongues. The rise of internet searches makes checking the latter much more possible than it used to be, but also more necessary.

Ta, L.
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I never thought I'd love another story line as much as I do the Vorkosigan Saga. Fool me. I am now riveted by Penric's adventures. Mira's Last Dance was an absolute delight. Is there another Penric story coming?
Lois McMaster Bujold I hope so, but I can't say when. As a general rule, I have found it better for my process (and sanity) not to discuss works in process or possibility until the first draft is nearly bagged. I am not, I must remind people, a fast writer, so there's no point hanging around underfoot in the kitchen until after I call you for the meal.

Whenever there is actual news, I will post it on my blog. So you won't miss anything.

Ta, L.
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On a re-listen of the Vorkosigan audiobooks recently, I noticed a 1-line reference to the tunnels under Vorbarr Sultana that were used to such great effect in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - which was written about 20 years later. This got me to wondering: how much research of your own work is (was) involved in preparing for a new entry in a series that has been written over such a length of time?
Lois McMaster Bujold I reread my own work so many times in the course of writing it and prepping it for publication, it's pretty well burned into my brain. I can pop back and check anything I'm in doubt about. (This can ambush me when I am happily wrong in some memory, and don't think to cross-check.)

Very often, something that was a throw-away line in an earlier work gets exploited and expanded in a later work, giving a flattering illusion of long-laid planning.

Ta, L.
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I love Slayers! I am so glad you found it! Who is your favorite character?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm only into about the second season. It is very silly, which is sometimes just the ticket. I think my favorite character so far is the big, blond, rather Russian swordsman. Although I'm also rather fond of the appalling Prince Dad.

Ta, L.
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When I first read *The Hallowed Hunt* years ago, I wrote you that I didn't like it as well as the first two "Five Gods" novels. Now after re-reading all three, plus gaining more understanding of spirit animals from Penric, I am happy to say I was totally wrong. I did not dig under the surface like I should have. Maybe I am older and smarter now? Great book. And now I understand why you used the POV you did.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you revisited The Hallowed Hunt! Yes, that one seems particularly prone to suffer from readers expecting it to be some other book, and being peeved when it does not match their expectations, instead of mine.

I am about to start recommending readers approaching Chalion read it first, to circumvent that expectations-effect. Although that might just generate the same problems in reverse order. I'd need to hear from a few more readers who'd read tHH first in order to form a theory.

I have heard from quite a few readers who, like you, read it again later and had a wholly different and more satisfactory experience. But persuading readers to read again a book they bounced off of in the first place is a bit of a trick.

Passive-aggressive bully-boy Ingrey was a very interesting viewpoint character for me to write, but I can see how his prickly surface (and interior) could be off-putting at first. And his character-arc was not to become a saint, like Caz or Ista, but a sacred king, quite a different job description. But, yeah, there may be such a thing as a writer trying to be too subtle.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold We don't know. Possibilities include, Animals Are Different, the fox got a brief spurt to escape (foxes can sprint really fast) before passing out in some shadowy place her pursuer missed in the dusk (that would be my pick), or the god stuck His thumb in somewhere.

Ta, L.
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Love your work, it's helped put my own thoughts into coherent words. Science is advancing so that some technologies in your books could be possible, do you come across the scientific theories first and then write them in your books? Or do you look to see what you would like to happen and imagine how it could be possible?
Lois McMaster Bujold Answer is, All Of The Above. Some were extrapolations of current tech, some were twists on (or arguments with) common SFnal furniture, taking it that one question farther.

Ta, L.
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I haven't seen the question here recently, so I'll go ahead and ask it: are there any more Vorkosigan books coming? I love the series and the characters, but there are not enough of them. Have you ever thought about possibly encouraging fan fiction or a collaborator along the lines of the late Marion Zimmerman Bradley. The barraar universe seems icy in both plots and characters.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, there is nothing brewing in the Vorkosigan universe at this time. (Isn't 17 books enough? It seems like a lot to me...)

No collaborations for me -- they do not mesh with my writing process, and would be at least twice as much work as writing an original piece.

Ta. L.
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Lois, I just now discovered that Megan Whalen Turner, one of our shared favorite writers, published the fifth book in her "Thief" series in May. *Thick as Thieves* Have you read it yet? The first four were great fun.
Lois McMaster Bujold Ayup!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Ta, L.
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Is there any hope that we will be treated to a story about Prince Jokol and his fierce lady in the future? He (and his ice bear!) was one of my favorite parts of "The Hallowed Hunt"!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. He was a favorite of mine as well.

But there is nothing about him on my current event horizon, no.

Ta, L.
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I noticed several parallels between Hallana and Penric -- Bastard's order, physicians, sorcerers, and picked up an unintentional demon (at least by human standards). I wondered if this was coincidence? Or did Hallana have some interesting themes you wanted to dig into deeper? (Hallana is one of my favorite characters, btw.) ^^ -Kalli
Lois McMaster Bujold I mainly wanted to have some fun playing with a really powerful sorcerer character. Once I decided to set him in the Chalion universe, a lot of the parameters and limits came factory-default. Then the game became to see what all I, and he, could do to explore them. We'd seen sorcerers before in the 5GU, but never from their own points of view.

Of course, once characters are set up and initially launched, they have a way of riding off down their own roads, the more so as they have time and space to develop. This takes us both to unexpected places, which is rather the point of such a journey.

The ala carte novella structure of Penric's tales is meant to give me the maximum choice of routes.

Ta, L.
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Lois, as a reader/purchaser of your work and now thoroughly enjoying the Penric novellas vie eBook - which way of purchasing (iTunes, Amazon etc.) do you get the greatest piece of the pie? I'm figuring that the various methods are not created equal for every author. Cheers from Melbourne, Australia
Lois McMaster Bujold The largest pay-through to the author are the indie-published e-books. Kindle/Nook/iTunes give the author 65% - 70% of what the customer actually pays. Another important factor is that these are vendors not publishers, on which more below.

E-books published through a publisher are next, although losing between half and three-fourths of the proceeds along the way depending on one's contractual royalty rate. (In return for services rendered, variously valuable or essential.)

Next would be publisher hardcovers, which usually come out at about 10% - 15% of the cover price to the author.

Next would be mass-market paperbacks, normally between 6% to 10% of the cover price to the author, although I've heard some abusive publishers (including Romance and academic) may chew it down as low as 2%.

The other two elements that have to be factored in to calculate actual income-to-the-writer are, What is the cover price? and How many copies can be sold?

Another factor is authorial control. Publishers of any sort require contracts and rights licensing which, depending on the terms, can remove the author's control of the book for anything from some set number of years (OK) to term-of-copyright (or as I call it, unto the heat-death of the universe.) This latter is best avoided, although again, a particular author with a particular title and particular other terms may decide it's worthwhile to them. In the era of paper-books-only, one could commonly get these rights back for one's out-of-print titles for the asking, but now that e-books are forever and most publishers are immortal corporations, this is a lot harder to do.

The fact that the vendors listed in the first paragraph are not publishers is huge for authorial control. They don't own/license any exclusive rights in one's book. The author puts works up or takes them down at the author's will (and a month's notice), and sets their own prices. There are a few pitfalls in the process, as in any process, but on the whole, including the all-important distribution, indie e-books win over any other form of publication in terms of potential benefit to the actual writer. (Or, to be fair, I should say "actual established writer." But that's a whole 'nother essay.)

To answer the question you actually asked, above, any of my three vendors are effectively equal in terms of what I get, so whatever platform is most convenient to you is fine.

Ta, L.
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In this past year I've discovered audio books. Now I own your entire collection in three formats! (Hoarder, much?) I've found that some books really shine when read aloud, no matter who reads them, some shine when presented by a great narrator and some have all their deficits glaringly exposed by being voiced aloud. (Yours shine. Like the sun!) What has been your experience as author and a listener with audio format?
Lois McMaster Bujold As an author, I have been delighted with the new internet downloading market for audiobooks, which has blown it wide open making room enough even for my work. (When it was physical media only, it used to be a very restricted market.)

I'm not a very aural-brained person, so I don't listen to audiobooks at this time, preferring visual print/pixels. I also lack things like a long commute, time on a treadmill, or other dead-time that they can fill. If I have worsening eye issues as I age, that may shift.

Ta, L.
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NaNoWriMo is coming up soon! And it sparked my curiosity. Have you ever taken part in NaNo or a similar writing marathon in order to help you crunch through a project? What sorts of techniques have you used to push through with your writing? ^^ -Kalli
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, such a thing is not for me. In the old days, impending running-out-of-money was enough to keep me focused, if sometimes frantic. Nowadays the pressures are internal, mainly a work demanding its own completion.

I get stuck regularly, and shoving through is not usually a good idea. It just results in me trying to write Wrong Things, which my backbrain perfectly well knows are wrong or the vision-spigot would not have shut down so firmly.

Although "keeping at it" is required, the process is oblique. Sometimes it means backing off for a bit till the well refills, especially if I have just written out the last spate and have to stop and take stock. Other times it means I need to do some more research of some sort, import the key idea or notion that unlocks the present puzzle. Talking out the plot snag with certain friends also sometimes helps, if not directly, stirring things up, brainstorming, what Pat Wrede calls "plot noodling".

I am a sort of mini-burst writer, with the bursts being, generally, one scene long. The vision of the scene comes up in my head -- one scene being all it can hold at a time -- and I marshal it up for the march by making a quick draft in penciled notes to nail the spine and structure and good bits, choreograph the dialogue, and so on. If I am interrupted after this point, I won't lose it. I sometimes wait a few hours or a day to let anything else slot in or shift. Take the notes to the computer and get it down, lather, rinse, repeat. I generally need to know what just came before the scene under construction (which is easy because I've already written it) and what comes after, so it will be aimed in the right direction and come out in the right place for the transition to the Next Bit.

Ta, L.
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Suggestion vs question: recently listened to Dunesteef's podcast of Scare Tactics, by Aeryn Rudel. Our world, woman has a demon entrapped in a giant Raggedy Ann doll, communicates with it while helping rid places of fake (or in one case real) spirits. Kept thinking of Penric and Des the whole time. I wonder if the author is also a Penric fan? Amusing listen, anyway.
Lois McMaster Bujold Assorted demonic or spirit possessions, possessed objects, shared bodies, multiple personality scenarios, etc. etc. are a staple of fantasy (and, with some jiggling, SF as well.) So that one could have come from anywhere.

Ta, L.
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You say the e-writing process has gotten frighteningly fast. Good thing? Bad thing? Has it changed the way you write? Or any of the different stages of your writing? For myself, I can look back and see so many things that I now do totally differently because of the computer and the internet.
Lois McMaster Bujold I should say, more precisely, that the self-e-publishing part has grown frighteningly fast. Writing still takes (me) as much time as ever.

I did finally make the shift, a few years back, to not printing out chapters as I went, instead working paperless just with e-files. (My paper consumption has dropped from cartons to next to nothing.) I find I do a lot more micro-editing this way, although I'm not sure that makes a discernible difference on the readers' end. But the editing-as-I-go, at the sentence level and scene by scene, has also grown in importance, as there is less time at the end to second-guess everything.

Ta, L.
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Hi there! I wish I could rant on about how much I love your work, but space is limited, so you'll have to trust me on that. I find myself enjoying your romances more than those in most fiction I read--definitely in part for the high-quality witty banter, but also because you write characters who really seem to complement each other. Is this based on your experience of romance? Some idealized version of love? Both?
Lois McMaster Bujold Idealized, I suppose. Most F&SF readers demand their main characters be smart, and I have a low tolerance for the "stupid misunderstanding" romance plot as a way to keep the principals apart for whatever the length of the story. (Certain comedies excepted.*) There are lots more interesting problems that can be evoked to keep people apart as needed.

Those who spurn romance stories because the outcome seems set are mistaking what the plots are about, I think. The question a romance plot must pose, and answer (showing one's work!) is not "Do these two people get together?" but rather "Can I trust you?" Which is most certainly not a trivial problem, in art or in life.

Ta, L.

* I am now thinking of Georgette Heyer's Friday's Child, where nearly all the main characters are young idiots, and the reader's hilarity and suspense comes from watching the ensuing train-wreck. But while the characters are over-the-top feckless, the book itself is very smart.
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May I join the no doubt hordes of others in wishing you a Happy Birthday? That is, if the Wikipedia entry is correct.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, you may. Thank you!

Ta, L.
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Can we expect a Penric & Desdemona omnibus in the future? I'd love to own a hard-copy, but the editions from Subterranean press, while really beautiful, are a bit too expensive for me to justify given the current state of my finances. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
That will be up to some print publishing company to decide. They know where to find my agent... There are enough for two reasonable 3-novella collections, now, in proper order. But note that SubPress's period of exclusive license, while short, still has some time to run before any competing edition may be published.

Ta, L.
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Do you know about Kindle Worlds? An author who opens up a fictional world to other writers receives a nice portion of each sale, plus attracts new readers to the original stories! I love your Penric stories. And look forward to all installments. But if you feel the Vorkosigan and Sharing Knife stories are done (for you, for now), you would certainly multiply your gain from them via the Kindle Worlds venue!
Lois McMaster Bujold I believe I've heard something about that, but it is not for me, for all the same reasons that regular professional sharecropping is not.

Ta, L.
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Again I am rereading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Knowing G. Heyer is was something of an early influence for you, the thought drifted across my mind that Ivan is a many generations distant descendent of Freddy from Cottilion (he is my favorite character amongst Heyer's books). Both tend to be overshadowed by brighter stars, both have down to earth common sense. Was Freddie also a favorite of yours?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, yes. I loved his relationship with his bemused father, too.

Heyer reuses the type, and it is common elsewhere, so it's not a sole source. See also Wodehouse.

Ta, L.
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Greeting from your formerly Ohio librarian friend who now lives in Seattle. Have you heard of this? It just debuted on Facebook and online, there's an app too. Romance based, but I believe your books are romance based in addition to science fiction. Not sure what you have to do to be an author on the site. Might be worth checking out. https://bookandmainbites.com
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not for me -- I already have all the social media I can handle -- but good on 'em.

These days, I pretty much rely on my readers to spread the word. It seems to work about as well as anything.

Ta, L.
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Not really a question, but something I thought you might find interesting. Based on my buying Prisoner of Limnos, Amazon thinks I would like Sunday's Child by Grace Craven, Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis, Quillifer by Walter Jon Williams, Paladin of Souls by somebody or other, The Mongrel Saga by LE Modesitt, Ballista by Steven Brust, Forged in Fire by Olan Thorensen, and Book Night on Union Station by EMFoner. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. I have no idea how Amazon's algorithms work. Good for me, though, because my works turn up on lots of pages through those connections, which may well be the only way some readers learn of them.

Walter Jon Williams is good, though; I like Steve Brust but no idea what Ballista is; I've only read half of one Modesitt -- inventive but PoV character seemed to lack interiority. The rest I do not know, because I have been buried so deep in the avalanche of popular culture I may never be found alive.

Does anyone know how Amazon comes up with these? I would assume some mechanized statistical buying survey...

Ta, L.
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I was just thinking about Alys Vorpatril - admiring her regal air and outstanding competence - it occurred to me that she first appears as Lady Alys, already married, and I cannot think of any mention of her immediate family. Are there highly competent and scary sisters somewhere else on Barrayar? Also Ivan is related to the Vorrutyers - does that mean her maiden name was Vorrutyer?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, Alys was not a Vorrutyer. Ivan is related to that line through his dad.

Ivan mentions aunts somewhere -- I posit Alys has some sisters, number unknown but plural, less possibly some brothers, living elsewhere, not in the capital scene. Probably with families, hence the sort of cousins one meets maybe half-a-dozen times in one's childhood and barely knows. Yes, I would suspect the sisters are also well-bred and tough-minded.

Ta, L.
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Just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed "Prisoner of Limnos." :) I'm curious, were you remembering Leo Graff when you had Penric saved by someone who saw a rescue as an engineering problem? It was a lovely echo back to Falling Free.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not particularly Leo, but engineers in general. Also,

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours...

Wonderful, and I see on-sale this week (Nov. 2017), so I recommend everyone grab a copy quick as they can. It's where I got the Lewis bolt, which of course I could not call that.

Ta, L.
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A friend and I were having an argument if Mad Yuri is more Stalin or more Ivan the Terrible in inspiration. Was one of us closer to the mark, or is Yuri an all-original tyrant?
Lois McMaster Bujold I wasn't thinking of any particular example of the historical type, no. There are certainly plenty of models to choose from. Unfortunately.

Ta, L.
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As I was enjoying home made Sweet Potato Pie with real whipped cream I was reminded of Tej's enjoyment of real dairy cream, in spite of her distrust of animal products not vat produced. If only I had sweetened it with Maple I would have had a real Vorkosigian treat. (Well, since I can't get bug butter.) Are you especially fond of real maple sugar products and real cream or are those literary devices?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Both, heh.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! My student Pablo Sánchez's BA dissertation on 'Ethan of Athos' can be found here: http://ddd.uab.cat/record/180123. He's about to publish this in Spanish, in the online journal Hélice. And I'm teaching right now your novel to my English Studies undergrad students here at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Any message for them? Best wishes, Sara
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ah, thanks for the link. Reader response is always fascinating in its infinite variety. "A book is like a mirror" as someone said. (The second half of that quote is more rude, and does not apply here, although it does demonstrate that the sometimes-strained relationship between writers and reviewers has not changed in centuries.)

I had a great trip to Barcelona back in 2008, which I remember fondly. It always boggles me a bit when my work turns up in academic courses. I hope your students are having good luck and a good time with their reads!

Ta, L.
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In light of the name Greenwell and its fame for cheese production, did anything about Wisconsin lend itself to the setting of Penric's origin?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No relation whatsoever. The name actually started out as Redwell, in the first draft, but I thought it sounded too much like Redwall.

(Switzerland, however, had some utility as a historical source.)

I confess I've never heard of Greenwell, Wisconsin.

Ta, L.
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I read e-books on an iPad and mostly get them from iBooks. The indications of genre in 'Library' view are all over the place: "Penric's Demon" is labeled 'Historical', "Penric's Mission" and "Paladin of Souls" 'Epic', "The Curse of Chalion" 'Paranormal'. Of course many others are better labeled. I suppose that you are not the decider, but do you have any influence? And who does decide?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have neither influence, nor control, nor in most cases even knowledge. I have no idea who is responsible for the genre or subgenre labeling in catalogs, but if it is individual library systems or even individual vendors, it could be all over the map. I'd call them all "Fantasy", myself.

Or "Bujold books".

Ta, L.
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Having read "The Prisoner of Limnos" several times, I was startled when a friend from the U.P. mentioned yesterday a cruel local practice among youth there of tossing food to seagulls, which they caught on the fly, and then tossing an Alka Seltzer tablet, which MADE THE GULL EXPLODE. (I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this story--it may be so or it may be rural myth.) Had you heard of this?
Lois McMaster Bujold I had not heard this urban (or rural) myth, no. (I've no doubt that some people would do such a thing, were it possible; much less sure of the chemistry involved.) In my story, it was an extension of the ill-fate of the rat encountered on Pen and Des's escape from the bottle dungeon back in "Penric's Mission", and a hint that this chaos magic could be truly dangerous if out of control, as potentially lethal as gravity. Or even dangerous when under control.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, that decision was set at the time I wrote "The Mountains of Mourning" in the late 80s/early 90s, though of course Miles didn't know it yet. The story was occasioned by a friendly debate between me and Jim Baen, discussing whether to have the banner over the titles read "A Miles Naismith Adventure" or "A Miles Vorkosigan Adventure". Jim was hoping for "Naismith", and lots of milSF tales. The novella showed him why it had to be "Vorkosigan".

I knew then that Miles would have to go back home someday, though I did not yet envision when or how. By the time I finished Mirror Dance, I knew.

Ta, L.
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The first of your stories set in the world of the five gods that your public has seen is The Curse of Chalion. Was that the first one written? And, can you (briefly) outline your thoughts behind this world? I know that a lot of energy can go into backstories that the public never sees, but I would love to hear about some of them.
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Curse of Chalion was the first Chalion tale written, optionally as a stand-alone, not that this lasted.

No, I cannot briefly outline my thoughts that went into its world-building, not least because it was 18 years ago. And would be as long as the novel itself. But you might be able to find some things in the interviews I did around that time period, early 2000s.

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

Also in Sidelines: Talks and Essays, maybe.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

It started by looking at 15th C. Spanish history, and wondering why no one was stealing its lurid events the way they mine the Wars of the Roses. But it didn't end there. Lots of long-brewing thoughts about how religion is treated in fantasy got folded in underneath.

There might also be something among the already-answered questions in this column, if you scroll back through. It is alas not searchable.

Ta, L.
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What is the connection, if any, between the pilot who takes Cordelia away from Beta and Arde Mayhew from “The Warrior’s apprentice”? Rob Yale
Lois McMaster Bujold
They may be presumed to be the same fellow, at different ends of his speckled career.

Ta, L.
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I've been reading your Vorkosigan saga novels for two months and yesterday I had a "shower thought" and I'd like to know if I'm guessing correctly: the 'Vor' prefix is the reverse of 'rov', which is a suffix used in many russian names. Am I right? I tried to read some of the names in reverse and they sound quite alright (at least for my 'romanian ear').
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. "Vor" is an aristocratic prefix I made up for the sound of it, back in the day, in echo of such things as the German "von", French "de", Dutch "van der", and others. I was pleased to learn later that it was also the Russian word for "thief", which fit right in.

Ta, L.
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Have you read or seen any Giradoux? In "Penric's Fox", the passage on whether ghosts can lie reminded me of "The Enchanted", in which the heroine, has a suitor who is a ghost. She remarks that he can answer the riddle of Death. Her living suitor responds: "What makes you think the dead would know the answer? If the dead know any more about death than the living know about life, I congratulate them on their insight!"
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, I don't know "Giradoux" -- is it title, author, or what? Good line, though.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I haven't; I would have to stop and make it up. I would start by working out the age-spreads, though, and thinking through what I know of families with such large age gaps.

Generally benign, occasional friction, some competition for parental attention, but mostly distanced. Nikki is about 12 years older than his next-oldest sibs, and more than 20 years older than the youngest twins, almost old enough to be their parent himself.

Ta, L.
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I love seeing Penric and Des grow and develop together and Penric is a charming lesson in positivity. I look forward eagerly to their next story. But Des is like the shaman's great beasts. And now she seems to have an identity separate from her individual riders. Can she become MORE than a demon?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, that's a good question, which would likely take many more years and stories to answer. Any change in her fundamental spiritual state would be very slow, however.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Bosha is very beguiling. (My plaint on him, while I was writing what became "The Prisoner of Limnos", was "Surakos Bosha is a damned scene-stealer!") He has this crowded and lurid backstory which might be interesting to explore in more detail, even though, broadly, we know how it comes out. How he came to the Xarre household and earned his place of trust might not be such a Tale Already Told as I think.

My knowledge of albinism is necessarily constructed from research (including a few historical and folk-tale references; it's a trope in more than one culture.) Nobody in my personal small circle of acquaintance to lend those extra telling details that don't make it into written sources, alas. In my defense, I did give him some eye issues with the photosensitivity...

Any potential Bosha front-story, ongoing, runs into an even greater wall of complexity than his backstory. I have a lot of ideas about my characters' lives, but extracting suitable novella-length tales out of them is a trickier proposition. And, of course, anything and everything written always spawns yet more potential threads. (While cutting off others.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
In order: Nothing more is planned at this time; two to four; soon if not yet. (Although given Vorkosiverse medical tech, children don't have to be crammed into a few fertile years.)

Ta, L.
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So often in fantasy that involves deities, they feel like rote miracle-granting machines. D&D takes this to absurd heights, where even the miracle of resurrection can be had at the cost of a couple of diamonds and a short prayer. Chalion is different. It's almost Kierkegaardian in it's theology; the gods are beautiful, absurd, and incomprehensible. I wept from the beauty of it. How did you create Chalion's theology?
Lois McMaster Bujold The short, facile answer is I Made It Up; the long one, which would be as long as my autobiography, that it evolved out of a lifetime of learning about, contemplating, and reading about real-world religions. The smattering of writing I've read from and about real mystics across a variety of faiths gave me a sense that they were all indeed honing in on some same thing, whether the godhead or the 60-cycle hum of their own biology being unclear. (Presuming the two are not the same.) Also from reading about the social functions historical societies carried out, and still carry out, with and through real-world religions -- teaching, medical aid, charity, orphanages, occasions for art, all sorts of community self-organized self-help. I wanted my fantasy-world religion to partake of both these serious endeavors. (Politics, like the poor, may always be with us.)

It also gave me a chance to argue with dualism, which is, in my view, a mistaken construction of the world that has done much harm through history. I wanted to make my gods both profound and evolutionary, based on a frame of the concept of emergent properties, which is about as far from the rigid simplicity of dualism as anything I've yet encountered.

And, of course, wanting to write my fantasy-world religion this way was indeed a reaction the the facile D&D-style constructions of religion.

Ta, L.
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recently I started rereading The Paladin of Souls and it suddenly struck me that Paladin reminded me of The Canterbury Tales. Is my mind playing games or did you use the Tales as a starting point when you began writing this book?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The book read to Umegat in the very last of The Curse of Chalion and of course the pilgrimage party in the opening chapter of Paladin of Souls were as-it-were shout-outs to The Canterbury Tales, especially the Chalionese version of the Wife of Bath. After that, the tale was on its own.

So, both our minds were playing games.

Ta, L.
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Where did the Theology of the Five Worlds arise? j
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answered recently:
https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

You may also find some comments from me on the subject in interviews done around the turn of the millennium, around 2000 - 2007, when the books were first coming out:
http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

Ta, L.

(It's a good idea generally to glance back through the previously answered questions, to see if one's query has already been addressed.)
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I've created a setting for use in an RPG game with my friends that uses ideas (especially the practical theology), places, and names from your Chalion books. I won't charge money for it or try to gain users beyond my gaming group, but would like to use https://worldanvil.com to organize the setting info. I think this makes it publicly available. Is acceptable to you?
Lois McMaster Bujold Fanac is for the fans. If you are not intending to make this commercially available, it is not necessary to ask. Or tell.

(Just as a point of general information, the issue of concern is not money, which would likely be trivial, but clarity of copyright. And the latter is only of concern to some major media purchaser, although there the legal concerns can become fierce and expensive. Alas.)

Ta, L.
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I read one of your interviews on LJ (Karen Miller, 2007). In it you mentioned a 6 week study tour of Africa. What was that like? Have you written more about that trip somewhere? Do you still have any of those picture slides you took? You also mentioned hitchhiking in Europe! What countries? I'd love to hear more if you ever feel like talking about these adventures. ^^ -Kalli
Lois McMaster Bujold The Africa trip was in 1971, and the Europe one in 1965, so both over 50 years ago. While I still remember more about them than any of my high school classes, I don't think I have the endurance to type them out just now.

I do still have all the slides. No slide projector or other method of displaying them, however. (Note to all the techie readers about to jump in with advice, Yes, I know they could be converted to digital. No, I'm not on for that project just now either, thanks.)

The hitch-hiking was with my 21-year-old brother (I was 15.) 1965 was likely just on the cusp before such a thing came to be considered too dangerous. Youth hostels and his valiant attempt to tour Europe on $5 a day. We did England, Scotland, and a bit of Wales. Switzerland and north Italy were in there somewhere, and passenger trains, a novelty to my Midwestern experience. (My brother was a big train and model railroad buff. To this day I still find public mass transportation alien and daunting.) Three weeks of this, switched to trains in France, where it wasn't so easy to thumb it, then he dumped me with my parents in Paris, once we'd finally found their hotel, and he went north to Scandinavia and we went south by car to Germany and Italy.

This was back in the days when a trip overseas was considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not a weekend jaunt. I was, of course, totally ignorant of the histories much of what I was seeing, and no internet to fill in, hah, but less so by the end. 1965 trip is also memorable for being where I first found The Fellowship of the Ring, on a used-book rack in Rome. I would say, "Left by some hippie," but hippies weren't invented yet.

Ta, L.
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not so much a question as a thought while reading "Penric's Fox" was how much the so-called demon Des reminds of my favorite writer from some years ago, and still going strong. well, not 200 years worth, but mosdef thru the "30 strikes back" phase question mark required?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Okay...

Ta, L.
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Dear Mrs Bujold, here's a (probably) odd one. In the Bulgarian version of "Mirror Dance", ch. 16, Lady Vorpatril tells Ivan to "[be] careful with the young Vorsossion", who is "a sister of Violet Vorsossion". That has stood out to me on every re-read of the series, since we later hear of the *Vorsoissons*. Is this an issue with the translation, or are the two ladies really members of the "Vorsossion" family?
Lois McMaster Bujold They could well be related, but if so the two branches of the line diverged so long ago that spelling differences crept in. They way they do, with immigrant populations.

Ta, L.
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I saw this article this morning about romance writers and digital publishing, and thought you'd be interested. Have you already seen it? https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/01/freelancer-gig-economy-tips-for-success-romance-novelist/550631/
Lois McMaster Bujold I had not, but it seems to be in line with other information I encounter sloshing around.

Ta, L.
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You've said already that "Vor is is an aristocratic prefix"; and there's a plenty of places where it gets lost (like ImpMil academy: "Kosigan, Kostolic"). But there's one name that always stroke me odd: Vorobyev, which sounds like a normal Russian family name (from "Vorobey", meaning "Sparrow"). Is it supposed to be "unprefixed" to? Or is it actually a non-Vor-name?
Lois McMaster Bujold "Vorobyev" is of course a real Russian name. When I ran across it, I immediately snitched it for a character. I like to fancy the clan was absorbed into the nascent Barrayaran aristocracy due to linguistic confusion.

Ta, L.
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Did Galen have Barrayaran-style prejudices against uterine replicators and homosexuality? Mark implies that he was exposed to slurs against both from Galen himself, and it seemed like Mark didn't just know about Barrayar's prejudices in an academic way, but really felt them. Was Galen putting on an act, or was he truly biased? If he was biased, was such bias common on Komarr?
Lois McMaster Bujold Komarr is relatively socially liberal, although not as much as Beta Colony. Galen's prejudices -- or hatreds, more precisely -- are of Barrayar in general and Aral Vorkosigan in particular, for which any ammunition to hand would serve.

Uterine replicators, certainly, would be common background tech from a Komarran's point of view; it would be like being prejudiced against, I dunno, pick the routine medical technology of your choice. IV drips, MRI scans, ventilators. But anything can be hurled as an insult if the irate person is distraught enough.

Ta, L.
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So with the deal between Kobo and Walmart (see, for example, http://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-will-start-selling-rakuten-kobo-ereaders-and-ebooks-2018-1), any plans on adding Kobo to your list of ebook sites? (I don't actually have a dog in this fight, since I don't currently own any sort of e-reader -- I just use whatever apps are provided by Amazon/B&N/Apple -- but the news item caught my eye.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'd not seen this bit.

Personally, I'm now sold on buying a general-purpose tablet computer and downloading ALL the reader apps, usually free, to it. (Mine is brilliant for manga, it turns out.) My helpers, besides being overrun with the work on their plates now, say that Kobo is a minor sales venue. If Kobo gets stronger, that opinion might change.

Ta, L.
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What other languages besides English has the Vorkosigan Saga been translated into? And where might I find a copy of them in these other languages (mostly looking for Russian)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My books have been translated into over 20 languages, although
not all titles in all languages. Note that this is over the course of my whole career, so many editions will have aged out of license and into oblivion.

First place to look, I suppose, is at the publisher websites of the target-language countries. AST (in Cyrillic ACT) has been my Russian publisher. Next would be the country Amazon site, if they have one. I know Japan, France, and Germany Amazons sometimes have my books. After that (or through that) used-book vendors in the language of interest.

Offhand, from memory before my morning tea, my books have been translated to:

Spanish
French
German
Italian
Hungarian
Finnish
Estonian
Croatian
Bulgarian
Greek
Czech
Russian
Japanese
Chinese
Hebrew
Frisian
Dutch
Korean
Lithuanian
Polish

Hm, I feel I'm missing something... I may have been counting Chinese traditional and simplified as two. We had a recent offer in Thai, but nothing has come of it yet.

It's interesting to contemplate which countries or regions apparently read SF, and which don't. I know in some of the smaller countries, like Croatia, Finland, and the Netherlands, most people who do read the genres do so in English, for breadth of access.

Ta, L.
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If you began writing the Vorkosigan Saga today, how smart would the computers be (considering how differently they work now vs. then) Convincing personality simulation? Anticipating many of your needs?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I likely wouldn't begin writing the Vorkosigan saga today, so.

Although Barrayar, as such, is still a metaphor for the 20th Century, so that still stands, even as the 20th C. is fading as fast as people can get away.

Ta, L.
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I have been thinking of possible ultimate reasons for the Bastard to play "match maker" between Pen and Des. Thinking of what Cazeril and others went through after being picked by one or more of the Five Gods, has me wondering if Pen and Des are supposed to do something to "fix" the rotten government system in Cedonia?
Lois McMaster Bujold The five gods are not interested in governments, only in souls.

Ta, L.
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Hi, are there any plans to reprint the Penric series? Or even better, release an omnibus version? I really only read hard copies of things, but I'm not in a place to drop $100 apieve on four books because they had tiny printruns...
Lois McMaster Bujold
The six extant Penric & Desdemona tales are ready for two 3-novella omnibus paper volumes, if some print publisher wants to step up to the plate; there is a contractual wait for the stories to age out of Subterranean Press's term of exclusive license, however, which will be a while yet given that the last two haven't even been printed the first time. (Still to go are "Mira's Last Dance" and "The Prisoner of Limnos". Given that it takes the average big publisher a year to get a book to print press, it does seem like some of the wait could double up with normal lead time.)

They know where my agent lives, so.

Note that we want a publisher capable of getting books into brick-and-mortar bookstores, otherwise there's no point.

(My experiment with print-on-demand with The Spirit Ring was lackluster in results, so I'm in no hurry to repeat it.)

Meanwhile, you might try interlibrary loan.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Ms. Bujold - not a question so much as a comment. I empathize with reader Alict, who asked about plans to release the Penric series in print. The only reason I have an e-reader - purchased after much soul-searching, pulling of hair, and gnashing of teeth - is because I couldn't buy the novellas as, well, what I still think of as "real books." That being said--Penric made it worthwhile. Thanks?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome?

I think you will find e-readers a useful addition to print works. I have certainly been enjoying my devices. My Kindle Paperwhite was good, and got me into the game, but I do have to say my Android tablet beats it for readability and range. (Manga is brilliant on it.) The Paperwhite remains more portable, however. Depends one's needs.

(The Subterranean Press limited paper edition of "Penric's Demon" is now selling in the secondhand market for quite insane prices, making your device look even more of a bargain, for a while.)

Ta, L.
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I've stopped hoping for another "Miles" book because I'm afraid you'd kill him. But in the meantime, I've fallen in love with Pen and Des - dare I hope for more? Also - can you cast Pen for my mind's eye? I can't find an actor who is blonde, pretty and looks younger than his years. Orlando Bloom as Legolas was VERY pretty, but don't think he could look young enough now. I guess they could go blonde wig again, but ...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, I don't follow actors enough to have a suggestion for Pen. I went off to look at an internet picture array when Ron Miller, the artist, and I were kicking around cover ideas, but he went with landscape (or seascape) instead, to my relief. None of the shots I saw then were totally satisfactory. So for the casting game y'all are on your own. I note hair color is changeable; facial structure would be the key.

Nothing new is in progress at the moment -- it's been a sluggish winter. All sitting around watching Great Courses and anime, and not going outdoors. New Pen is not impossible, especially given his flexible story-length options, but the next idea spark has not yet reported for duty.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Lois - you’ve referenced your love of manga a couple times. What are some of your favorite titles? I like it, but don’t often find one I can really sink into, as with a good novel — the last being the scanlation of Yokohama Shopping Trip / Quiet Country Cafe (which I’d highly recommend). Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold Manga and anime rather run together for me, since my interest usually starts with the anime and then, if it really catches my interest, I track back to the manga to compare or continue (since the anime versions often stop short.) Some dual faves include Mushi-shi, Pandora Hearts, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and its parallel work xxxHolic. Bleach in parts, like the curate's egg. Saiunkoku, if I'm remembering the spelling, was very good but broke off unfinished. The anime of it is now hard to find. Paprika remains my favorite feature film. There are lots of others that I've found interesting, but not necessarily re-watch gripping.

If you are looking for that novel-like feel, I'd recommend Pandora Hearts, if you haven't read it already. Excellent art, plus it has the virtue of actually being a fully (if weirdly) finished work.

Ease-of-access is the main driver of my current explorations -- Netflix, Crunchyroll (anime plus e-manga), and my public library have been my main sources to date. I don't usually buy volumes unless I've sampled them already and can't get them any other way, though the ease of downloading (and storing, and reading) e-manga from Amazon is leading to more actual trial purchases. Rightstuf.com has proved another source for the obscure, sometimes.

Ta, L.
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First, what I hope you'll receive as a compliment: For more than 30 years, ETHAN OF ATHOS has been my go-to comfort read. I've worn out seven copies. I still read it when I need to escape my rage and fear about the world we live in. Second, a question about the story: Was your single-sex world, with its loving, nurturing men all the way through to wild horndawgs, inspired or informed in any way by the Kinsey scale?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you've enjoyed the book!

I think it was informed mainly by observation of the world around me, but in general I am a believer in gradients of human behavior, not tidy boxes. Not that tidy boxes aren't very popular, among those who wish the world to be simpler than it is...

The other observation, of course, is that children create, and certainly mold, parents, at all sorts of levels and in all sorts of feedback loops, from the most basic biological survival up through deep patterns of culture. And these, too, all exist on gradients.

Ta, L.
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In Curse of Chalion you have scenes of crossing a mountain pass and Penric likewise crosses a pass. You make it all very vivid and immediate. I've never been up in such a place and was wondering what experience and research you'd based this on? (This question was prompted by watching a documentary on a team of scientists looking for Hanibal's route across the alps - and seeing mountain passes.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've been across a few passes by car, in the Rockies and the Alps. And I've ridden horseback. Not at the same time, but it isn't hard to meld the two experiences together. (And the Cascades and in New Zealand, come to think, though the latter were later. Travel is good for a writer/future writer...)

Ta, L.
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I just finished the first book in your Chalion series. Wonderful read! I noted the Early Modern Spanish and Medieval French political/cultural motifs, but what other periods/nations served as inspiration for your worldbuilding?
Lois McMaster Bujold Oh, gosh, I wrote that book 18 years ago, so it's all blurred in my memory. But I can say that besides Spain (obviously) I was thinking about a whole raft of not-necessarily-noble-born Renaissance ministers to kings and queens who helped usher in the transition from realms to nation-states: Walsingham, Cisneros, Richelieu, the unfortunate David Riccio, and so on.

The Hallowed Hunt, which you may get to, draws on a lot of material from a slightly earlier period in Germany. Kick-off book was:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

and then a pile of other source material including biographies of Charlemange.

Ta, L.
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I fear this might get asked a lot, but have you considered continuing the Vorkosigan Saga with Helen Natalia and Aral Alexander as they grow?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing so planned at this time.

(Besides, I already did The Next Generation -- that was Miles, ne?)

Ta, L.
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Do you read novels while you're writing one? Or do you need to focus on the narrative you're creating without being distracted or influenced by another?
Lois McMaster Bujold In and out of my brain seems to be a one-way bridge. Heavy input blocks output, and eats time for rumination, or even for long-term memory formation. Since modern media now provides an effectively infinite river of input, and I have neither infinite time nor infinite brain-space, I do have to go on a sort of self-imposed input diet while actively creating. Or put another way, I start to create when what's going on inside my head manages to be more interesting to me than all that's coming in from outside.

Naturally, this is growing harder, as modern media gets better and better at competing for people's attention, and there is easier access to way more of it.

Ta, L.
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I feel a very strong spiritual affinity with the Five Gods theology to the extent of seriously considering writing it as my religion on the New Zealand census form this week. My desultory searches have not shown up anyone else taking it this seriously. Are you aware of any expressions of the Five Gods spirituality outside of your novels?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Five gods, I hope not. I have less than zero desire to follow in the footsteps of L. Ron Hubbard...

That said, there seems to be an interesting bifurcation in reviews of the Five Gods stories, between readers who are alive to the spiritual issues and take seriously how and why they drive the characters, and another reader-stream who seem to be completely tone-deaf to such issues, and thus find the courses of actions baffling, pointless, trivial, or not matching their expectations of how a story should go and why.

Ta, L.
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I visit the Am. Society of Nondestructive Testing offices last week and saw the plaque dedicating their conference room to your father. 'McMaster' is an uncommon enough name that it caught my eye, and closer investigation revealed the quote from you. I had to explain my 'fangirl' squeal to my colleagues and the staff there. He sounds like an amazing person. Would you like pictures of the three plaques?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, please; I'll make a blog post.

For those who wonder what we're talking about, there's this:

http://www.dendarii.com/tribute.html

Ta, L.
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Hope that link works. Wanted to share you now have your own bookshelf in my collection. Love your work so much! https://scontent.fybz2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/28685792_10155911806005280_2958914055248543744_n.jpg?oh=b46f870073e27c9c4b498558c3317398&oe=5B4261A4&_nc_o2e=z2198e41f&efg=eyJhZG1pc3Npb25fY29udHJvbCI6MSwidXBsb2FkZXJfaWQiOiI2NDkxMzUyNzkifQ%3D%3D
Lois McMaster Bujold
Fun! I'm going to assume you wanted to share this with the world, and not just me... The questions do seem to be made anonymous, so this should be OK even if you didn't.

Just a general note, the Goodreads messaging system is best for private emails. (I grant it's not easy to make work. Tips welcome in the comments section below.) But anything one doesn't actually want publicly posted and archived for all time in the Q&A column should go there.

Ta, L. Whose brag-shelf is now up to four bookcases.
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Hello again! A question occurred to me while I was looking back on my notes from The Curse of Chalion, Was dy Sanda god-touched after all? Also, is Castle Porifors from PoS based off the Alhambra? I ask because that's one of my favorite historical sites (Fun Fact: the tiles in front of the Nasrid sultan's throne were inscribed with the name of Allah, so it was impious to stand too closely. Deters assassins too!)
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, dy Sanda was not particularly god-touched.

Porifors is a sort of generic melange of an assortment of minor Spanish military castles, not including the Alhambra. (Its region was never that rich!) Internal design as per the needs of my plot.

(The Zange was somewhat inspired by the Alcazar of Segovia, however. Also internally redesigned per plot. Another fun fact: "Cazaril" is a partial anagram of the word alcazar.)

Ta, L.
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I have less a question, more a request. I have loved your fantasy work for years, but only just devoured The Vorkosigan Saga in the recent months. I only ask, is there any way you could return to Athos? As a gay man I was thrilled to read about that planet, and even more thrilled to learn the population would gain superpowers. Could we see this?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't have anything new planned for the Vorkosiverse at this time, but you are free to imagine the Athosians having a happy ending. Or a happy continuing, rather. (All the happier for NOT having a Plot land on them, I suspect...)

Ta, L.
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Congratulations. You've just achieved the type of success in which Aral Vorkosigan is footnoted as being the father of Miles Vorkosigan. Or had you already reached that point?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I suspect the impact of engineers upon the world is rather greater than that of writers, but one must reflect who it is gets to write the accounts... :-) Engineers are quieter, their successes found in all the disasters that don't happen, and thus are never taken note of.

I do wish my dad could have lived to see some of my later successes -- he died a month after my first book was published, at which time it was by no means clear if this writing stuff was going to work out for me.

Ta, L.
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Is this the origin of Vor? The tattoos were the mark of a vor – the Russian word for “thief”, but also a general term for a career member of the Soviet underworld. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/23/how-organised-crime-took-over-russia-vory-super-mafia
Lois McMaster Bujold
I actually made up the prefix "Vor" for the sound of it, to evoke such aristocratic markers as the German "von", the French "de", and so on. I was however very pleased to learn later about the Russian word, as it seemed to fit very well for a caste that started as some sort of mounted thugs, or counter-thugs (because that sort of thing is contagious), and looking at the histories of warlords and feudalism in our world.

Ta, L.
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I’m rereading A Civil Campaign for the millionth time and am wondering about the Vorrutyer family. Where do Byerly, Richars and Dono’ s parents fall in birth order to Ges and his ill-fated sister (was she ever named in the series)? Did Ges have any children? Thinking of Richars as Ges’ nephew (or son?) certainly adds some potency to the references to his behavior by By and Dono from their younger years. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold Right, it's not actually that hard. 5 kids altogether of the Count VR in that generation.

First son and heir was Pierre's and Donna's father. Second son was Ges, who had no legitimate or known offspring. Third child was Aral's ill-fated first wife, who also died without offspring. Fourth-child-third-son was Richars's father, Fifth-child-fourth-and-youngest son was By's father.

By has one sister, Richars has at least two sons and possibly one or more daughters; any sisters for Richars unknown but not impossible. Dono and Olivia will have several children, and By's potential reproduction is unknown. Any miscarriages or children dying very young are not known/invented, though the former is probable and the latter possible especially in the earlier generations, adding gaps to spacing between siblings.

(The name is pronounced vor-RUT-yr, by the way. And the planet is barra-YAR.)

Ta, L.
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I was a long-time fan of your SF when I came across your Sharing Knife books, tucked away in a corner so to speak. This is a truly wonderful story. I was disappointed that the plot arc came to a natural conclusion, and the story seemed to be over. But now I think there is something that would propel Dag and Fawn back out into the wide green world. Would you consider a sequel?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad you enjoyed the tetralogy! The Sharing Knife tends to get less love than my other series, and I have several hypotheses but no certainty as to why, except that those who do like it, like it a lot. Bless them. The target audience (if there were such a thing, and not just me throwing stories into the air to land where they will) seems to have a thinner overlap with my other audiences, I guess.

All I can say is what I say about similar inquiries for all of my books: I have nothing planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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I know that in your youth you enjoyed Star Trek, especially the character Spock, is the original series still your favorite iteration of the show?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I was another person then (and it was another world) but yes.

Ta, L.
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So, re-reading Penric, I got to thinking about the problem of demons jumping from humans to animals, and Des' reluctance to end up in a dolphin. Because dolphins are pretty smart, really. And then that got me wondering about how often that Roknari trick with the cushion...backfires. I mean, what if instead of a jellyfish the demon jumps into a passing shark? Or a sperm whale? Not to make any literary allusions.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. Many are the possibilities. We've seen what can happen when a human-sized demon is forced to jump to a smaller mammal; one could extrapolate from there.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, How do you know when a novel is “finished?” Do you find yourself tweaking things for weeks after you first think you are done with a story, or are you more of a “once and done” kind of author? When I paint, once I’ve signed my work, I never touch it with a brush again. I was wondering if writing was the same.
Lois McMaster Bujold I pretty much know by gut feel when the events of a novel have come to the right conclusion on the scene-by-scene level -- although for Cryoburn I added the codicil/drabbles after some comments from test readers, to keep folks from galloping off in all directions with sequel speculation. There follows a revision pass, when I have collected and collated comments from test readers and editors, on either the finished first draft or chapter by chapter, depending, and respond to them as seems right. On the sentence and word level, I tweak till the thing leaves my hands for publication, and on the typo and polishing level, for decades after, as opportunity permits.

So, not much like painting, no.

(Although very much like sand painting in a windstorm.)

Ta, L.
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We have done a cosplay of Miles and Ekaterin based on written descriptions and some imagination (it helps that my other half is 5" taller than I am) but we also want to do a generic Vor couple. I want to portray a Major in ImpSec, but I cannot find a full listing of the ranks with collar tab colors in any wiki. Do you have it all written out? Also, from my lady: What do Vor ladies wear routinely?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, I've never written out the rank minutia. Viz costuming, you are also on your own, though I could note that I have not inflicted the necktie upon Barrayaran men.

What Vor ladies wear will depend upon era, age, income, and venue or function, so there's quite a lot of free play, there.

I could add, the Russian fans were doing quite a lot of Vorkosiverse costuming at one time -- there might be something online for inspiration, or at such fan art refuges as Deviant Art. Check around. Other commenters might chime in below.

Ta, L.
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Do you have a current fan site or fan club? If not, what would you say to us starting one? We even have a name--The Vor Nexus--already picked out!
Lois McMaster Bujold No fan club as such. Fanac is for the fans, to be self-assembled at will, or whim. Have fun, be nice.

Ta, L.
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You have written that the four languages of Barryar are descended from Russian, Greek, French and English. Obviously you know English as few others ever will, but do you speak any of the other three?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, no. My high school French was half a century ago, and has gone down the same drain of time as my high school body. I can recognize the others on a page, but cannot read them. (I can recognize Hangul (Korean alphabet) now, too, go me. Thank you Great Courses.)

Ta, L.
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Did you read about this while prepping The Sharing Knife series? Very interesting research!
Lois McMaster Bujold I did not, since I wrote the books starting over a decade and a half ago, but the results are intuitively obvious.

Cool article, though.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, as I recently saw a youtube series about "The Truth about Space War" - the channel's name is Because Science - I came to realize I think I've read that somewhere in the books. In Mirror Dance I remember Mark recalling "The weapons were supposed to cook everyone neatly, like eggs in their shells". Considering he's from a universe in the future how scientifically aimed was that statement?
Lois McMaster Bujold
About as scientific as trying to boil a egg in its shell in a microwave, I expect. I mean, we don't need future-science for this.

Or, for more immediately pertinent parallels, I suppose the autopsy reports from submarine disasters would give some useful insights. All the space disaster autopsies we possess so far are from ground-based or atmospheric incidents.

Biology and medicine. They are real sciences, people...

(My closest speculative examination of the subject is probably the short story "Aftermaths", found at the end of Shards of Honor.)

Ta, L.
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I have a vague memory a comment you made several years ago when someone asked about another Vorkosigan book that you had started writing about finding butter bugs in the radiation zone, but that was as far as the idea had gone. Is Flowers the end result of that idea? BTW, I'm about 70% of the way through and enjoying it immensely.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, I presume. I'd written the opening of what you see back in late 2011, early 2012, but it stalled out and other projects took over. It was never intended to be novel length, though I'd thought it was going to be a longer novella than it finally proved. Rather like that description of the length of someone's legs: "long enough to reach the ground." In this case, long enough to reach the end.

Ta, L.
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Posted a notice on my web site about your Ekaterin novella. Will there be more novellas about her? http://LaerCarroll.com
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is planned or in progress at this time.

Thanks for the signal boost!

Ta, L.
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What is your favourite scene in Harry Potter and sorcerer's Stone?
Lois McMaster Bujold It's been too long since I read it, and it is conflated by now with the movie, so I really can't say. (Also, I read Harry Potter and the Philosoper's Stone, but that's because I snuck it in from Canada.)

Ta, L.
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The news today is that Philip Roth has died. In the NPR story about him, there's a reference to an interview in 2013: https://www.npr.org/2013/03/23/174949848/at-80-philip-roth-reflects-on-life-literature-and-the-beauty-of-naps . Where are you on the spectrum of retirement? Obviously, not fully retired yet, but I suspect you might be slowing down?
Lois McMaster Bujold On the spectrum of retirement, I am choosing my own adventure, which is a lot slower than most people think of as adventure. To the greatest degree possible, it consists of avoiding the things about an author's career that I found most wearing -- book tours, for instance, or speaking or teaching engagements, or most cons, or in general anything that involves getting on an airplane. Or deadlines. Or contracts for anything that is not all the way finished at least in first draft. (Some parts are not sluffable ever -- keeping business and tax records, ferex.)

It also consists of reading or watching whatever the heck I want, and not ditto what I don't want. Less self-improvement -- I figure it's all downhill from here anyway -- and more brain candy. Because when someone my age or older says, "Life is short," they kinda mean it. Personally, I blame my mitochondria -- see https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... (Granted, the recent anime binge has more to do with new accessibility and the dratted epiretinal membrane/macular pucker issues.)

The indie self-publishing experiment, so far quite successful, suits this plan well. Shortest possible route from story in my brain --> text --> most succinct possible technical transmission --> text --> story in reader's brain.

Ta, L.

(Many people, when they gas about retirement, say "I want to travel and write a book!" Um...
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Hi Lois... I have Flowers of Vashnoi sitting in my Kindle, but I just can't bring myself to start it. Once I start it, I know I'll just keep reading until the end, and then it will be over. I like knowing there is a new Vorkosigan book waiting for me, but since I can't have my cake and eat it too, I just want to have it for a while. Is this too weird?
Lois McMaster Bujold But if you read it now, you can read it again later. It's not as if those pixels will wear off the screen from the eye friction...

Ta, L.
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Will Flowers of Vashnoi pull a Weatherman? I love it! It feels like it's just getting started!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you enjoyed it!

For the record, "Weatherman" was an out-take from The Vor Game, the novel was not a continuation or expansion of the novella. At the time, the Analog sale was a chance to turn little more cash on the work, very much needed.

But no, I have no plans for a continuation.

Really, the story should be complete in itself; I'd be very interested in reader response from someone for whom it is their first Bujold, or at least their first Vorkosigan. I think it should stand alone just fine, but I admit I haven't had a chance to test that. "But they'll get a different read!" is not a useful complaint, as everyone always gets a different read.

Ta, L.
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Think Beta could still be storing Cordelia's first extracted eggs? Seems like something they might do.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes.

(This is a reference to a line of Cordelia's memory-musings in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, for those wondering.)

Really, I shouldn't wonder if it's SOP for all Survey personnel to store gametes, before going off on their dangerous voyages. Because Beta, and their families, certainly wouldn't want to lose those high-grade gene lines.

Ta, L.
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Have you considered selling "Flowers of Vashoni" on https://www.smashwords.com/ or some other site that would let readers who want a copy in that isn't restricted to a single platform? While it is possible to convert a Kindle to epub it's a hassle
Lois McMaster Bujold Smashwords apparently has Business Level Issues, that incline my agent to shy away from it. So, no, not at this time.

Meanwhile, I should remind people that Baen.com still offers a number of my e-titles, in assorted formats; folks who care about such things might want to look there. (Not the recent novellas, granted.)

(It often puzzles me why people who have downloaded a story and can presumably thus read it on the spot would wish to convert it, rather than storing it as-is, but that's another religious debate. Having been party to cleaning up the estates of a couple of persons by now, and observing a few more, I will note that nobody is going to want your books after you die, so that reason rather falls down.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You do not provide links or descriptions how to find either of the things you reference. Try again?

If, at a wild guess, you are trying to compare "The Flowers of Vashnoi" and Proto Zoa, they could not be more different. The first is my most recent Vorkosigan series novella, and the second is a collection of my very earliest short stories from the 1980s.

I don't see the covers as anything alike, although if one were comparing them on a small black-and-white screen, maybe one might make that mistake?

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for giving The Hallowed Hunt a second chance! A startling number of readers have reported the same first read/second read effect you describe. I'm still trying to figure out why.

My current theory is that series readers were nonplussed by finding it was not a continuation of the first two books, and spent their first read mad at it for their thwarted expectations. Once they calmed down and were willing to take it was it was, their reads improved.

Or it might be that they really did grow older and smarter, who knows? Readers who shared this experience are welcome to chime in below and share it some more.

Ta, L.
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"Flowers of Vashoni" is DRM locked on Amazon, was this deliberate? Or is it available somewhere without DRM?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Personally, I am indifferent to DRM, as both writer and reader -- I think it's utterly useless for stopping piracy, and it certainly doesn't impede me from reading anything I buy (*) -- but some of the people I work with are not. So DRM it is, for now.

Ta, L.

(* -- Meaning that I read legal copies on legal apps, not that I break it myself; yet another tech learning curve that I have no desire to scramble up.)
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Have you ever written a play or script? (We were discussing your works over dinner last night, and one topic that came up was how "Mountains of Mourning" would make an excellent stage play.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, no plays or scripts from me. It's a different medium from novels and short stories, etc., so I'd have to retrain, which I am presently too lazy to do. More cogently, to achieve any kind of performance and reach an audience, it requires working together with people in groups.

A mainstream novel I read once had the memorable line, discussing the pleasures of life, "It takes two to make love, but eating you can do alone." I would add writing fiction to that list.

Ta, L.
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I always have a hard time reading Komarr because I see too much of myself and my prior marriage in Ekaterin. Were you drawing from personal experiences (yours or a friend's) when you developed this?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am pleased that you felt Ekaterin was an authentic representation of these complex and difficult issues.

Ta, L.
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When I read my friend's blog about her newfound passion for all things Bujold, I was very surprised to learn that she doesn't love Cordelia (though her reason makes sense cf http://www.alicebulmer.com/me-and-lois-mcmaster-bujold/) Everyone else I've ever talked with about Cordelia adores her, but now I wonder whether you have come across anyone else not so keen on Cordelia?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, yes, in any large enough group there is a sprinkling of anything. Some readers quite dislike Miles, too, or Barrayar in general. (Why they keep reading the books in that case puzzles me, but, oh well, readers.) Although I must say your friend sounds as though she likes Cordelia quite well enough for going on with.

One thing some people seem to miss is that in her first two books, we see Cordelia from the inside, all her doubts on display, and in all but the last of the later books, we see her from the outside, in brief fragments. That changed angle of view, and the information it does/does not take in, makes a huge difference in perception. (I play with this a bit in GJ&RQ.) Information bias and viewpoint control are a valuable tools in the writer's toolkit, especially for characterization but also for plot and worldbuilding.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen "Sneaky Pete" episodes on Amazon? At last, I think I've found the actor to play Miles ... Giovanni Ribisi. He's marvelously talented, very charismatic .... and short. Once he smiles, just follow him anywhere. Have you ever seen an actor you thought could pull it off?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm afraid I don't follow enough current actors to answer this question. Good to know some might be out there, though!

Ta, L.
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For goodness sakes you are a big author to ask a question of but no one else can answer it. I am looking for a small inspirational book with a saying by the author on each page accompanied by a drawing of a bluebird. Do you or any of your other follower, readers know the title please?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not known to me. Anyone else?

(Librarians tend to be good at this sort of question.)

Ta, L.
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HOW DO YOU MAKE YOURSELF MOTIVATED TO KEEP WRITITNG?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Running out of money used to work quite well...

In recent years (and from the beginning as well), the work itself demands its own completion. Not, alas, on anything resembling a regular schedule. I've described half a novel as like half a bridge, useless until complete from shore to shore.

There is usually also some significant emotional reward for getting the work out there and read, and getting reader feedback. It is, after all, Attention, with luck more positive than negative.

Ta, L.
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Having read and re-read all your works that I can find through many stages of my life I continue to identify with all your depictions of motherhood, both internal and external. Currently my oldest is on the cusp of adulthood, and although I see external descriptions of this stage of parenting, I've searched and not found the internal depiction I'm craving. Have you any plans from this POV?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not per se, but it's an interesting conundrum. Approximately ten million tales from the points of view of teens, almost none from their parents (the Enemy, usually, in coming-of-age tales, as is older authority generally.) Mothers, parents, and domesticity are perceived by many readers to be the antithesis of exciting stories.

Don Sakers had some musings on the topic, if this link still works:

https://web.archive.org/web/201611232...

Ta, L.
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I'm new to goodreads website and I have written a book called "T&C Soch Ki Soch" which is my first book, so can you suggest me how should I reach people or tell them about my book so they can read it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You should have something on Goodreads called your "Author Dashboard", most likely accessible from your Profile page, or from that drop-down menu from the circle on the far upper right. Start there and explore its tips. It has a link called "Author Tutorial" right on it.

I no longer remember how I first found/founded my own Author Dashboard, so perhaps a poster with a better memory could chime in below with more directing advce?

Ta, L.
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Every Monday I volunteer at the library and every Monday I eat breakfast (usually oatmeal) and make a lunch (usually a salad with blue cheese dressing) and every Monday I end up thinking about Shards of Honor... and every Monday it amuses me. Should I change up my routine? Nah...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answered your own question, then...

:-), L.
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I think Penric is now one of my top male characters to have dinner with, right behind Cazaril and Peter Whimsey. And I would love to hear more about any/all of his adventures as they occur to you. But Bosha, Tanar and Adelis are the unresolved storyline that itches at me and makes me curious because I can't see a happy ending for them. Can you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can, but the route there is long and roundabout, and involves more Cedonian politics and time than I want to deal with right now. (Actually many potential routes, which doesn't make it easier.) Maybe someday. No promises.

And then there's Bosha's entire angsty backstory, which could be a novel in its own right, but a weird one. Also with a problem or six about a satisfactory ending. But yes, Surakos Bosha is certainly one of those characters who unexpectedly leap off the page.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois - Flowers of Vashnoi is clearly in conversation with The Mountains of Mourning. Both Stories are heartbreaking, and while the experience Miles had strongly informed his path of maturation from adolescence to adulthood, how does story in Vanoshi affect Ekatarin in the long term?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ekaterin is already mature when the story opens; no YA heroine, she. So she has much less "character development" to do at age 35 than Miles had at 20. The experience will inform and enlarge her abilities as Lady Vorkosigan, going forward. Because Countess is a job description as well as a title.

Ta, L.
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Have you ever defined the rank insignias for the Imperial officers not specifically mentioned? I want to Cosplay a Major or a Colonel in ImpSec and don't know what color collar tabs to use.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, you are on your own for cosplay. Pick a color you like not already defined, have fun.

(Do note that I have not inflicted Barrayaran males, military or otherwise, with the necktie.)

Ta, L.
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Perhaps you have not seen this? http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/09/the-right-to-kill-brazil-infanticide/ (A 'backwoods' culture of killing handicapped children isn't just fiction, unfortunately.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I had not seen this, but the practices it discusses are by no means unusual, especially across history. (And prehistory, though that's harder to suss out.) Look up the infanticide practices of the Romans and Greeks, if you want something closer to home. I don't know if anyone has done work on the practices of the Teutonic tribes, but I'd expect something similar, or in any culture that is periodically or routinely thrust to the edge of survival.

Selective infanticide is the historical norm. Saving such children is new, and largely a consequence of advances in technology and the economy. (As a rule of thumb, people tend to embrace the moralities they can afford.)

Ta, L.
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I was wondering where you draw your inspirations from? Do you often see people, historical time periods, moments and then create stories based upon that? How much of your writing are pieces of your childhood combined with life experiences?
Lois McMaster Bujold This question is a bit too broad to answer, but briefly, All Of The Above covers it. Like found art, the stories tend to be pieced together like a montage from all sorts of magpie bits and bobs, fleshed out as I go. Including, of course, experiences from all periods of my life. (Pieces of my childhood are (among) my life experiences, natch. They aren't really something separate.)

Which bits in my bag get picked out for inclusion at any given time is driven by the underlying needs of the story. So the process is far from random.

(My nonfiction collection Sidelines: Talks and Essays includes more on some of the stories' specific origins, scattered about.)
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I have read your Sharing Knife series more than 20 times, and it has helped me through some of the darkest times of my life. I served for 4 years in the USMC, then nursing school for 4 years. I've been an ER RN for 10 years. I was just accepted at university for my Psychiatric Nurse Practicioner degree. When I can finally build a hospital, may please name the library in your honor? Dag and Fawn have kept me alive. TY
Lois McMaster Bujold I am glad my work helped nourish you when you needed it. (And I'm always especially pleased to hear a good word for The Sharing Knife tetralogy.)

I've never had a library named in my honor, but it would be cool. Though I once had a name plaque on a chair in a library auditorium, that some fans rustled up for me when the library was canvassing. I suppose I can always hope for an asteroid. I did have an experimental rescue robot named after me once, years ago, which was a treat.

Ta, L.
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"Hallowed Hunt" is rapidly becoming one of my favorite books; I've read, and reread it about three times in the last six weeks. You are so deft in the way you unfold a story about character from "left field" becoming the tool for restoring order to a system that became unbalanced through a misguided use of power. Since a question is required, did "Hallowed Hunt" draw some inspiration from shamanistic practices?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying the book! I do think surly Ingrey grows on one, if given a chance.

Really, only the name and a loose connection with animal practices and sacrifices is brought over from our-world sources. Almost everything else about 5-gods-world shamanism is made up for the purposes of, and to be consistent with, the world-building of the story.

Ta, L.
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When you were flogging your first ms around, did anyone advise you to use a non-feminine pen name? (e.g., like C. J. Cherryh, or perhaps even James Tiptree.) Nowadays, of course, nobody would dare suggest it. Or maybe so; there's J. K. Rowling as a recent example.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, although I certainly thought about it.

Amusingly, quite a few readers over the years, some admittedly speaking other languages, have not recognized "Lois" as a feminine name, so I got some of that marketing gender confusion for free anyway.

Although whenever I am put to signing a large stack of books, I often regret not going with "Lois McMaster", which would have cut the time folks had to spend in signing lines by a third.

bests, Lois.
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Dark companion book recommendation?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no idea what this is in reference to.

L.
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Hello! I would really love to start writing, but I have this problem. Every time I start something, or try to come up with something, I can never continue. Where do you get the inspirations for you books?
Lois McMaster Bujold Middles are hard; many writers bog in them. I can offer you a quote from one of my characters: "Nothing worth doing is fun all the time. But it's still worth doing all the time."

For writing advice, try http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ or the compact version, the e-book Wrede on Writing.

Your last question is much too broad to answer here, but I cover some in my nonfiction collection Sidelines: Talks and Essays. Also in assorted interviews over the years, http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth... Comments on specific books tend to cluster around their original pub dates and attendant PR pushes.

(If what you are really trying to ask is, "Where can I get the inspirations for my books?", the main answers are: life experience (including work and family relationships, friends, getting people to talk to you and tell you their personal anecdotes, in other words lots of listening) tons of reading including history and nonfiction, travel and other direct non-reading information flows such as museums, courses, live stage plays as well as the normal flood of TV and movies, and, again, life experience.

Ta, L.
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What does coaxing lumps mean? If I Google it without quotes I get nowhere, with quotes I get referred to one of your books which rather puts me back where I started
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's old American Midwestern slang for "asking for it"; behaving or speaking in a provoking way that inspires others to attack, literally or figuratively. "Lumps" being what you get when someone hits you.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen this Spoonflower scattered-quotes design? She's clearly a fan! (I recognize some of the other inclusions, too.) 1832993-she-reads-lot-books-by-kellyw
Lois McMaster Bujold
No working link, there, but my quotes bob around all over the internet, so I'm not surprised. Out of context, mostly, and attributed to me even when it was a fictional character in a fictional situation speaking. The game of Twitter Telephone being what it is, that may backfire weirdly someday, but so far it seems OK.

Ta, L.
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I'm on A Civil Campaign, am I running out of Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. You still have Diplomatic Immunity, a bit part in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, major stuff in Cryoburn, and minor roles in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen and "The Flowers of Vashnoi".

So, Miles to go.

Ta. L.

(There are *cough* a couple of other series as well...)
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Having now read all your novels, I’m more convinced than ever you’d appreciate Miyazaki’s long Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga. (Its story overlaps with only the beginning of the movie.) He spent 11 years on it, probably his best work. Vivid characters, deeply moving, purposeful world building, nothing cliché or even particularly familiar. If you’re exploring some manga, why not?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've seen the movie; didn't know about the manga. Thanks for the rec!

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois: I'm 100% new to this. Just published my book: Antebellum Struggles" with KDP. I don't know how my book appeared on Goodreads, but I'm glad it did. It's an "African-American historical fiction" novel on slavery and plantation drama in 1852. I've googled "How to get book reviews?" 'til I'm blue in the face. Any suggestions would be soooo appreciated. Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold My experiences with breaking in are too far out of date to be useful in the new millennium. Anyone else wants to chime in with suggestions, feel free to use the comments section below.

If you check your Goodreads "Author Dashboard", which should be accessible from the drop-down menu on the picture cartouche on the far upper right of your own profile page, there are an assortment of author tutorials from GR. I've not looked at them myself, so cannot speak to their utility.

Ta, L.
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Will we be seeing more Penric? I read all the novellas within a month last year... Has to be one of my favourite cycles ever...
Lois McMaster Bujold I hope so, but there is nothing new in the works at this time.

(Much of the point of the ala carte e-novellas scheme is to keep the series, or story-grouping, as flexible as possible. I seem to be reinventing the old pulp magazine system for doling out tales, without the encumberment of the pulp magazines.)

Ta, L.
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I just reread "Diplomatic Immunity" for the umpteenth time and wondered if you ever had any plans to write a story about what the Cetagandan Star Crèche might have ended up doing with Miles' blood sample/genome? The first time I read it back in 2002 I hoped they would somehow be able to use it to make his body much better.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'd think they'd want his brains, but, nature, nurture, not to mention nutrition. Replicating Miles would be a lot harder than just copying his DNA. I don't think the Cetagandans have any particular motivation to gratuitously extend his life.

As far as medical aid goes, I'd think Miles would be a lot more comfortable going to Beta Colony. We don't actually know that he hasn't...

Anyway, I have no plans for such a tale at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. First I want to thank you for the great stories you’ve written. Rereading books from the Vorkosigain saga always feel like coming home. In the book Komarr, Miles mentions dealing with bullies as a child. Are we ever going to see more of that story? (Aral’s death was interesting in the way it affected those close to him, but I miss the character. A young miles story could be a nice way of revisiting him.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you have enjoyed the stories!

But nothing is planned in that direction at this time, no.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. Do not apologize for enthusiasm. But, alas, I can only recite what is becoming my mantra: there is nothing in that direction planned or in progress at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois, I haven't read one of your books but it's sounds like it's full of adventure and excitement. Do you have have any tips or words of wisdom for eager writers?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ayup. Go here, read everything:

http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Or, if you want a compact version, this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Good luck!

Ta, L.
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"As far as medical aid goes, I'd think Miles would be a lot more comfortable going to Beta Colony. We don't actually know that he hasn't.." Interesting. I know someone with ALS, luckily the slow kind. I've wondered how profoundly it would affect him emotionally if it were not just arrested but reversed after 20 years of fighting & dealing with a slowly progressing debilitation. Conflicted, redefining himself at 65?
Lois McMaster Bujold Good question; I have no answer.

Although surely some analogous situations have cropped up in real life by now, people with formerly uncurable conditions which have been overtaken by advances in medical technology.

For myself, I expect I would be ecstatic, then swiftly readjust to my new normal normal. Any folks with RL experiences are welcome to chime in with their own insights.

Ta, L.
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What is your most favorite one liner in the book?
Lois McMaster Bujold

...Which book?

puzzled, L.
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Have you had any of your books self-published?
Lois McMaster Bujold
All of the books ferex here on Kindle (and iTunes, and Nook) listed as from Spectrum Literary Agency are self-published.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_2?...

Includes all the novellas, including the 7 recent original-to-epub ones, the nonfiction collection Sidelines: Talks and Essays, the old short story collection Proto Zoa, most of my Vorkosigan Saga backlist (republished, technically), ditto The Spirit Ring; I may be missing something, but, short answer, yes.

The seven fantasy novels through HarperCollins and my recent few Baen books remain with their original publishers.

Ta, L.
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I've heard such great things about you as an author, but I just have NO idea where to start with with your books. Which one do you suggest I read first?
Lois McMaster Bujold
If you like science fiction, and are not allergic to a touch of romance, start with Shards of Honor. If you like fantasy, start with The Curse of Chalion or, for a shorter taste, the novella "Penric's Demon".

After that, look here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Good luck!

Ta, L.
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You are my writing hero and your books have gotten me through some dark parts of my life. I recently had a novel published and I wanted to send you a copy as a thanks for being such an inspiration. Can I send it to Spectrum in NY to pass on to you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You may.

Ta, L.
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I have a friend who was the Easter Seals child when she was three. They put a new valve in her heart every 5 years, and each time they told her and her family that she would be unlikely to survive the five year life-span of the valve. If you were in a very quiet room with her, you could hear the valve clicking. When you could not hear it, it was not closing right and she would have to be scheduled for another replace?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Part 1 of 3-part comment.
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Sorry, replacement surgery ASAP. When she was in her 20s, they switched from her pediatric team to another surgical group and that group replaced it with an organic valve. It was a profound change. She told me that she had never thought about a career, just about a job, that she could not imagine trying to save up for retirement, that she now wished she had not had a hysterectomy as soon as they would allow it. That ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Part 2 of 3-part comment.
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That it was more profoundly disturbing than any of the many times she had been sure she would die in surgery. It took over a year for her to really come to grips with it. She’s doing well now. (Although she married a guy I don’t like and we’re not in as close touch as we used to be.)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Part 3 of 3-part comment.

As an aside, it is better to put comments in the Question column under a question, or over in a comments section under a post in the main blog; this feature is not really formatted for chat, or at least, the Q part is not.

Ta, L.
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When you have first started writing about Miles, did you have a clear idea of how his character would turn out? To what extent have you based him on the traits of real person/s - or is Miles entirely a product of your imagination? Was it your intention that he starts as a complete outsider and thus his physical appearance? I guess it says a lot about your optimism that he survived and never turned against Barrayar...
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've answered this one a bunch of times in a bunch of places, now scattered to the winds of time I suppose. I really should fix myself one of those canned-answer files for FAQs, but so far I've been too lazy and disorganized. Iirc the intro to Baen's 30th Anniversary trade paperback reprint of The Warrior's Apprentice touches on it, also the Afterword to Young Miles.

No, I never have a clear idea how any character will turn out. In general, I set them in motion and watch them go, like an AI self-learning program. They will be created by their actions as they progress. (Note that speech, too, is an action, as is internal dialogue.)

I don't know where folks think the contents of people's imaginations come from, except from the world around them. It's not an either/or proposition. Real-word inspirations include but are not limited to young T. E. Lawrence, young Winston Churchill, my own relationship with my own father, a physical (but not psychological) template in a hospital pharmacist I used to work with long ago, Aral's and Cordelia's personalities and situation, and doubtless other sources now forgotten at a remove of, let's see, Miles was initially created in 1984, so now almost 35 years.

The first thing I knew about Miles, before his name or anything else, was that he would be born to Aral and Cordelia physically handicapped in some way, but very bright, on mutie-hostile Barrayar. This was about halfway through the writing of Shards of Honor. At that point, he was little more than a glowing blob in my mind, or in Cordelia for that matter, but he got better.

One might also note that the original first draft of Shards of Honor actually went up through the soltoxin attack, but not including the start of the war of the Pretendership. So up to the end of Chapter 9 or thereabouts, don't remember exactly where I broke off. I then cut backward to the present ending. When I went to start Barrayar a number of years later, I wrote a new Chapter One for the needed transition, laid in the 8 chapters I had in hand, retyping and editing them, and went on from there. So for a while, I knew a lot more detail about Miles's early start than the readers did.

Miles is not so much an outsider as a liminal figure, really, existing on the borderlines of so many things, able to see, and be pulled, in multiple directions.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, in A Civil Campaign, the majordomo says, “My list,” said the majordomo, “has all of you on it. Vorrutyer, Lord Vorrutyer, Lord Vorpatril, Armsman Szabo.” Isn’t Ivan supposed to be Lord Ivan?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ivan gets his honorific not from being heir to Count Falco, but for being great-grandson of Prince Xav, and in a Certain Unstated Relationship to the camp stool. Barrayaran titles don't have as many quirky exceptions, which must be learned one by one and vary with context, to their already ad hoc rules as, say, the English language does, but there is a definite tendency in that direction.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, We just had a bottle of this before noticing the name. Have you seen it before: https://goo.gl/images/ZwG5Yq ? From their website it looks like their and your choice of names are of a similar vintage, too. (Apologies if you've been asked this too many times before -- I can't find a way to search the questions.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, never encountered this before, but it is amusing. I hope it was tasty wine!

Ta, L.
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How long have you been writing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
For myself, since 8th grade; though there was a long hiatus in my twenties. For what eventually became professional publication, since 1982.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I just wanted to reach out and tell you how much I've enjoyed your work thus far. I just got finished reading Memory and as I was nearing the middle of it, I was hit by just how great it was, not only as a novel, but also as the culmination of such a wonderful series so far. I've already started on Komarr. How much planning goes into your novels? Are you a seat of the pants writer?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm, some of these process questions are answered earlier in the Q&A column -- you might try scrolling back -- or in my interviews. I would say my series are pretty ad hoc, building one book at a time which always changes or channels the possibilities for what follows. Within a book, I will have only a vague idea where it's going; writing starts when the preliminary notes, averaging about 50 pages, and whatever research reading I've done, somehow make the opening scene/s rise up in my mind. I capture the thoughts in penciled notes, then type them, shifting the scene-block out of my mind to make room for the next wodge, and repeat the process. So my planning is diffuse, not done all-at-once.

But I am not seat-of-my-pants as it is usually understood; I need to have each scene I'm working on blocked out in notes, sequence of events mostly nailed, dialogue roughly scripted, and choreography roughly designed, before I sit at the keyboard. But only one scene at a time, with a glimmer of what's next. Details are filled in, sequences modified, items added or tossed, etc. editing as I type.

Lather, rinse, repeat till I reach the end.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
If you think it through like Ezar... and it says something about Cordelia that she could, it was to assure that if the Prince were rushed injured into surgery, he would not make it out alive.

Belt, suspenders...

Ta, L.
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Regrets if this ?'s been asked already. Belated congrats on the 2017 Hugo win for best series (Vorkosigan Saga). Is the award a statue or another pin to add to your beautiful & creatively clever award necklace?
Lois McMaster Bujold

Yep, I got a pin as well as a rocket. Pictures of the latter shown on a blog post made at the time...

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

I actually got two nomination pins that year, iirc, one for series and one for novella. The necklace is getting a bit crowded...

There are lots more older GR posts, not to mention older Q&A answers, for anyone with the curiosity, time, and endurance to scroll back through them.

Ta, L.
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Greetings. My name is Rasheed. I am the author of "Poetry for the Rightful Thinkers" published by Trafford Publishing, Bloomington,IN,USA. Please how can I draw the attention of readers to my book on this platform? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answered here:

https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

(I am willing to give these first two the benefit of the doubt, but if as a result I end up with a stream of newbie writers of completely unrelated items popping up here to covertly advertise themselves, I'm going to start deleting the "questions" without response. This sort of thing is not good Netiquette, folks -- although I completely understand the desperation.)

Ta, L.
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I am currently reading Edward James's very interesting book about you in the "Modern Masters of Science Fiction" series. While he is a big fan of your writing, he sometimes interprets things differently than you do. So how does *"The Writer" feel about being written about?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, it's very flattering, of course. And a little weird. Each reader has their own construction of everything they read, and I don't think academics are immune from this in any way. In fact, it's something of their stock-in-trade. They are also writing within a genre, Academic Writing, with its own genre conventions and agendas, with certain boxes they are trained to tick, and which take some learning to parse for a reader coming in from the outside. (Just as in any other genre of writing, truth to tell.)

Arguing with same bears for the writer the same hazards as attempting to argue with any other review. One of the (fortunately) early lessons in professional etiquette I was offered from an older writer back in the 80s, and which seems only more pertinent now, is never to respond to reviews except, perhaps, for an occasional thank-you if someone says something especially nice. It's much harder to stick by this wise rule in these days when reviews and comments come not from a tiny handful of edited print columns, but dumped out by the virtual truckload. And from a much wider range of sources.

I was given the chance to read this book in manuscript, by the way, and offer corrections (iirc I tried to limit myself to those of biographical or bibliographical fact) which was a nice courtesy to receive.

( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... for more on the book referenced -- academic press e-book pricing, but far from the most heart-stopping I've seen.)

Ta, L.
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Hello!! What model of car do you drive? Thank you, Nathaniel P.S. Love all of your novels
Lois McMaster Bujold
2002 Saturn sedan. It has 50,000 miles on it, 'cause, y'know, I don't commute... If it'll go for another 50k, it should take me up to 2034.

Ta, L.
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Did you know the astronauts on the ISS are reading your books?https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/astronauts-international-space-station-books-story-time-tim-peak-a8469681.html I think the list needs more female identifying sci-fi authors but your books are a great start.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep. https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Someone had actually told me that some time back (along with sending me the pix of my books in the library in Antarctica), but it's fun to see the whole list.

Ta, L.
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Have you seen this list of books that are aboard the ISS? Hint: scan for your name. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/astronauts-international-space-station-books-story-time-tim-peak-a8469681.html
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Ta, L.
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Hello, Lois! First of all I want to thank you very much for the Vorkosigan Saga. I read it first more than 20 years ago, in Russian. I just swallowed it overnight and hunted down all published books written by you. Right now I am reading Miles's story for the fourth time and can't sleep if not finish it overnight ))) My question: do you ever feel scared or stumbled when starting a new story? How do you manage?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've answered my-process questions in a lot of places, including (somewhere) in this Q&A file, so you might find more detail if you hunt a bit. "Stumbling" happens all the time, I suppose, but I do a lot of it before starting to type out first drafts, in my notes-and-outlines phase, which also get constantly redeveloped as I go. The worst part of a book or story for me is not the beginning, but the middle. Middles are the pits. So I suppose I manage bit by bit, breaking down the process to chewable bites.

Separate from the actual writing is all the business stuff -- contracts, deadlines, promotional duties -- which can add stress depending. Which is why one of the conditions of my current semi-retirement is to neither contract nor announce new work, if any, till the first draft is bagged. (It's normal business practice not to publicly discuss any contract or other negotiations till they're over. Since many of us writers are sort of raised by wolves, business etiquette, too, can take some learning.)

Pat Wrede had a good post recently on the topic --

https://www.pcwrede.com/advice-for-cr...

If you scroll back through her blog, she has a lot of cogent remarks recently on middles and their hazards, too.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. I've been wondering about nonromantic relationships in your writing. It seems to me your intense friendships pretty much all have complex power dynamics -- you don't do simple strong friendship without either romance, or guardianship and authority and different sorts of control? Am I wrong about that, and if not are there conscious reasons for it? (I really enjoy the way you do handle power dynamics, btw.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't think you are right, but perhaps you are not thinking over a wide enough array of my characters. Other commenters might find this an interesting enough question to chime in with their takes below. Miles and Ivan? Claire and Silver? Barr and Remo? Cordelia and Alys? Penric, Inglis, and Oswyl? None would seem to fall into the range of what I take you to be thinking. (I'm not actually sure just what, or who, you're thinking about, here, actually. For one thing almost no one who talks about power ever stops to define the term, always dangerous in a debate.)

A lot of the stories do include characters who have to step up to larger responsibilities than had fallen to their lots heretofore. That's usually called "character development", though.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I first came up with Vashnoi in 1984, when I was writing The Warrior's Apprentice, so it predates not only Fukushima but also Chernobyl. (But not, of course Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) It was built in broad outline back then, including the idea that there would be people occupying it extra-legally, and other people whose jobs it would be to chase them out. The recent story was further informed by information about Chernobyl -- I particularly rec the PBS show from a few years back with the irresistible title of "Radioactive Wolves".

Ta, L.
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I just finished the Sharing Knife series and was wondering if you plan on revisiting the world again in the (near) future? Also, what are the malices? Any chance we will get an idea of their true origin?
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't have any plans at this time for visiting the deep backstory of that world. Other things, well, never say never, but I have nothing to report at this time. The malices were a kind of magical-scientific accident, possibly during some pursuit of powering up mage-craft and pursuing immortality; they partake of something human crossed with something nonhuman. They do seem to have something insectoid in their makeup, but it may also include theft of aspects from the now-absent gods. (If there ever were gods.) Howsoever the individual elements that went into them were healthy enough in their original forms, the amalgam was a disaster.

Ta, L.
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The English Department of the uni. I attended structured their degree program to emphasis both history and criticism. One d-- paper after another. Sadly, I still see themes (whether they exist or not.) I am much taken with the idea of "surrender of self to the greater" that shows up in "Memory" and in the Chalion series. Is this a product of deliberate intent, or the character's spontaneous outgrowth?
Lois McMaster Bujold
By that I'm guessing you mean the author's deliberate intent. I don't think character growth is spontaneous; it is usually a result of the story-so-far, which is why the writer has bothered to put all that stuff on the page in the first place.

Whether surrender-of-the-self-to-the-greater is right or not will depend on the character and their particular story (and their particular "greater", not to mention what is meant by "surrender".) Very easily it might be the reverse, a character recognizing that whatever they had identified as their greater actually wasn't, and should instead be ignored or resisted.

Miles has a descant on it somewhere, to the effect that true destiny does not consume, but rather, returns an enlarged self. If something consumes with no return, one may be in unrecognized trouble.

Ta, L.
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A long time ago, I asked you about feeling "bookicidal" (your word) about my own work. Your answer was empathetic, and I've carried it gratefully all these years. But now I have pressing financial concerns and a beta-reader who is so uninterested that she wants me to send her the Cliff's notes. I can't pander to that: I can only despair in its wake. Where do I find the courage to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It sounds as if you might need a new beta reader. They do wear out, over time; nothing lasts forever. (Although a writer can wear them out faster by making them read repeated revisions, something to be avoided.) Nor is any given beta reader suitable for all works. Also, no one will ever be as interested in your own writing as you are (rather naturally) so expecting them to somehow carry you goes beyond what one can reasonably ask from a crit.

I don't know about courage, but if you want information the resource I recommend is this: http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Or for the short portable version, this: https://www.amazon.com/Wrede-Writing-...

Scattered through are a number of useful and sensible posts on coping with critique problems, from both sides.

Financial concerns likely need to be addressed separately, though also sensibly -- no one in the modern world can live without money, the more independently obtained the better -- and are outside of my range.

Good luck!

L.
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I am an admirer of your work. One of your greatest talents is creating whole, interesting characters that make you want to follow the story, and the complete worlds the characters inhabit. When I start one of your books, I know I will escape into another dimension. When you write, do you set the stage (place and time), or does the character evolution do that for you? Do you use outlines in your creative process?
Lois McMaster Bujold I've discussed my process in a number of places, including earlier in this column (probably more toward the beginning, scroll back), and in interviews and essays over the years. There's a mine of interviews here: http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

Also iirc in The Vorkosigan Companion https://www.amazon.com/Vorkosigan-Com... among other vendors.

But briefly, setting, plot, and character form feedback loops as I go; any of the three have served as start-points in different books, but character tends to be the most important for driving things forward. I use a rolling outline, a mess of general notes followed by scene-by-scene penciled memory aids that are halfway between notes and rough drafts, one scene at a time as I write. (Thinking it up and writing it down are two different phases for me, and the notes capture the thinking-it-up parts.) No way could I hold a whole book in my head on Day One; the next scene is about all I can manage, lather, rinse, repeat till done.

Ta, L.
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I came across this on tumblr and thought you'd appreciate it. Have you ever played DnD or another tabletop role-playing game? http://downtroddendeity.tumblr.com/post/176989536912/im-halfway-into-the-first-miles-vorkosigan-book
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. D&D, and computer games, came along after I was a grownup (of sorts), married, with kids and a job and a household and a career to launch, so there was No Time.

Given the dangerously addictive behavior computer solitaire evokes in me, I'm more than a bit afraid to try much else. (I had my son take it off all my computers and hide it.) More power to y'all, though.


Ta, L.
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"Ivar Ragnusson, better known as Ivar the Boneless. He was born, so it is said, with ‘only gristle where his bones should have been’. Ivar almost certainly suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta. He would have been very short, unable to walk without aid and with badly deformed limbs and spine. " (Sykes, Blood of the Isles). He led a Danish attack on Britain in 865! Another Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ivar is new to me, but you have to figure, every medical condition that exists now existed in the past, if with different names and explanations. (Except the ones that used to kill at birth or early on.) Thankfully many old killers have been rendered more rare by sanitation, immunizations, sterile technique (ferex tetanus used to take out a lot of infants from dirty cuts of the umbilical cord) and better understanding of nutrition. Grant you, osteogenesis imperfecta isn't one of those "easy" fixes.

Ta, L.
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I am a new author. On the self-publishing journey, but don't really have a burning ?. Just saw your name and wanted to say "Thank you!" I love your writing in general and your Vorkosigan series sits next to Sherlock Holmes and Harry Dresden on my most beloved reads shelf. Actually, since my eyes aren't what they used to be, I will add that I am very pleased you found such a good narrator in Grover!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Grover's great. My agent adores his voice work.

I'm not much of a listener, but I've found my reading app on my tablet computer turns every book (well, every e-book) into a larger-print book, which has been a boon, lately.

Ta, L.
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Congratulations on the Series Hugo win for the World of the Five Gods! It is absolutely deserved. No, this isn't a question? ;)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks!

Ta, L.
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In the WoFG Universe, you have shown characters who are the saints of the Father, Mother, Daughter, and Bastard. Is there such a thing as a saint of the Son? If so, what are their powers and function?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good question, which I would probably need a book to stop and work out. Although Inglis, if not a saint, certainly earned his god's attention at the end of "Penric and the Shaman". He also had a cameo in The Hallowed Hunt.

But yes, there should be saints of the son; His turf being comradeship, the hunt, autumn harvest, there should be room to speculate.

"Guardian of young males" tends to be a pretty thankless task, but someone's got to do it. Five gods know they need it. Also a good question where, aside from biological fatherhood, the two gods would have their hand-off of allegiance.

Ta, L.
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are all of your books fichin?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Guessing that last word was meant to be "fiction", no; there's also this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Ta, L.
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Congratulations! http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/2018-hugo-awards/ Did you go to the ceremony?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you!

No, the lovely Catherine Asaro ably represented me at the Hugos this year. She has entrusted UPS with the trophy, which should show up here next week. I'll make a blog post when it does, if I can remember how to kludge around Goodreads' very annoying images limit.

The whole ceremony is up on YouTube now.

Ta, L.
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Hi Ms McMaster Bujold. Writing to congratulate you on yet another well deserved Hugo. Also a ? for you, but maybe better for your fans. The World of the Five Gods is a mouthful. I've seen WoFG as an abbreviation. How about WotFig, even though it sounds like a terrible botanical disease of fig trees. Advantage is that it is pronounceable.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm going to stick with "World of the Five Gods" for story covers and ad copy, myself, but the fans may devise what they please. It was being abbreviated 5GU, for Five Gods Universe, a while back, which might serve for those with tired texting thumbs.

Ta, L
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I have just returned from my second trip to the Will F. Jenkins (Murray Leinster) Collection at Syracuse University. It felt very scholarly to restore, from the manuscript, a line omitted from a '50s novel, lost to some sort of typesetting accident and replaced by a confusing line from an earlier chapter. Do you have any favorite Leinster stories, especially any not among his very most famous?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I last read Leinster in, probably, grade school, so my memory of his work is compost by now. I have a dim association with some sort of space medical drama, if I'm not munging him with his contemporary Alan Nourse. Or James White, tho' the tales I read by him are more distinct, even at this remove.

So, none to report, sorry.

Ta, L.
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What were the names of the four mistresses of the palace beautiful in pilgrim progress?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't remember, but I expect the book is widely available through Project Gutenberg, not to mention public libraries, so I expect you could find the reference with a short search.

Ta, L.
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how do I read your book, the book is not coming up ?
Lois McMaster Bujold

Which book, and where?

And what do you mean by "coming up"?

baffled, L.

(My books are available on iTunes, Nook, Amazon Kimdle, the paper stores of the latter two, a few brick-and-mortar stores, and many public libraries. In most cases, one has to spell correctly to get a hit...)
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Curious about blurbs; are they done at the agent, editor or publisher level? Solely a marketing decision? Do authors seek them out from other authors? Have you ever declined a blurb-ee? Is a sentence or phrase suggested to the blurb-er? If you're willing to share how Anne McCaffrey's "Boy, Can She Write" &/or how your blurb for Peg Kerr's The Wild Swans happened, I'd love to know. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Blurbs are solicited at all three levels. I have in the past, when my books were in the production stage, had my editors ask me for a list of likely candidates to send pre-publication copies to for remarks. It is up to the editors to decide which of the ones they then get back to put on covers. I don't think anyone ever suggests what to say to the blurber, but since space on a cover is tight, it's common to select just the most useful-looking phrases from whatever has been offered.

My indie ebooks don't require blurbs on their "covers", though we recycle old ones onto the vendor pages where appropriate, or new ones taken from professional reviews. (Which are another source: Publisher's Weekly, YALSA, and Booklist are all names-to-be-recognized, especially by purchasing librarians.)

Anne McCaffrey's nice blurb came through Baen, with whom she had a close working relationship. (It may have been on the back of a postcard she'd mailed from her Mediterranean vacation, but I don't remember for sure.) Peg Kerr was in a writer's group with me at the time, so I'd already read the book in manuscript, making that one easy.

I decline requests for blurbs all the time these days, rather shamefacedly as I benefited from them in the past, but I have eye issues that curtail my reading time. So I'm rationing it for either, first, work on my computer, or second, whatever is left goes to things I've chosen, usually on my tablet. Enlargeable fonts, yay!

Ta, L.
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Just reread Hallowed Hunt cuz you said Inglis had a cameo. Tongue in cheek?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't think I said that anywhere -- got a link?

It is in the back rooms of my mind that Ingrey and Ijada are ancestors of Inglis, though. And Oswin an ancestor of Oswyl. The two stories are about half-a-dozen generations apart.

Ta, L.
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Would you have to add to Dag and Fawn's tale to win your third series Hugo?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, rule is that to be nominated a series has to have a new work published in the award year.

Not that it matters. Although The Sharing Knife has its own cadre of loyal readers, it doesn't seem to have been as widely popular with the Worldcon crowd as my other two series.

Ta, L.
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GREETINGS Lous McMaster Bujold im Heather. Im a big fan of the books you wrote . Hmmm... I was just wondering if I could ask some questions regarding the books you wrote?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That is what this Q&A column is for. But keep in mind it is a public space, so questions should be of general interest, not contain anything personal you don't want the world to read, and brief.

Ta, L.
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Your stories key on responsibility and consequences, good and bad... the societal implications of even a few medical areas have had profound affects in your diaspora future cultures, Are there any trends in science or culture you see more recently you would love to go after if you were younger, that may be as profound when they hit the fan? Any trends you think are less important than they seemed 30 years ago?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm. In general, I lay no claim to being a futurist, although it's always fun to be right twice a day. I'm not sure what you mean by "you would love to go after if you were younger" -- as a writer? As a student? As a patient? (This week, I want a noninvasive cure for macular pucker, if I get a pick.)

For anyone interested in prognostication, I'd say keep an eye on biology. Where any pop sci books published more than five years ago are now out of date, as are some that were published one year ago. Or last week. The explosion in biology itself, of course, stems heavily from the explosion in computing and communication. Progress is happening all over in a 3D or maybe 4D web, not in a line, which makes any linear extrapolation, the favorite of many (but not me), almost bound to be incorrect.

This seems like a good topic to throw open to the comments section.

Ta, L.
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Thank your for responding, Here's my questions What inspires you to write your stories? How old are you when you started writing stories? What advice do you have for writers? That' all thank you very much Lois Mcmaster Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold
To answer in order, I have begun to believe writing fiction is actually a high-level dissociative disorder. Besides that, certainly the material for a story comes from everything the writer has ever done, read, watched, or experienced. What forms that material gets shaped into will depend on the writers' internal psychological needs, or interests, and what material they have encountered. (Starting, at the most fundamental level, with what language/s they speak, and what forms of story their culture presents them with.)

I suspect imagination begins almost as early as consciousness and memory -- what children have not played "Let's pretend!"? -- but certainly I was making up scraps of story by grade school, and writing them down by junior high. My writing that was good enough, and original enough, to make the grade of professional publication began in my early 30s, after I had acquired more learning and life experience to draw upon.

More (than you wanted to know) may be found in my nonfiction collection Sidelines: Talks and Essays, or in the interviews section on the Vorkosigan wiki, http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...

I direct all aspiring writers over to Patricia C. Wrede's blog, http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ , for one of the more sensible writing-advice sources on the internet (go back to the beginning, read it all), or for the compact version her book Wrede on Writing.

Ta, L.
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Good Day Ma'am,Hi, I'm Angelley Ragasa from Philippines.I really love to read your stories, the way you right your stories, it's very interesting. You inspires me. Now, I really want to read your stories more. May I ask you some questions? Can you recommend any new or upcoming authors to us? What keeps you motivated during creative slumps? How did you come up with the idea for your book? I hope I could get a response.
Lois McMaster Bujold Okay! I see I am confronted this morning with five nearly identical sets of questions to the most recent answered, all apparently from the same high school class, and therefore an assignment. My friend who writes YA gets tons of these, and they are a great burden on the target author -- teachers should be made aware that it is unfair to make a kid's grade hinge on this, and teachers really shouldn't do it to any writer from whom they have not first asked and received permission. But one can't blow off kids, so.

I will treat them as one unit, and only answer non-duplicating questions. Classmates, if you click my Q&A column into "newest first" order, at the button on the upper right, you should be able to see them all grouped, albeit in reverse order than I answered them.

First of all, many of these questions have been answered previously in this very column, at greater length. If you scroll down to the beginning and read up, you will find them. More is available free online (this being what it is, free online seems the way to go) at the Vorkosigan wiki, http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth... Not to mention my Wikipedia entry, and those of my books and characters. (I find it a source of great amusement to reflect that my imaginary friends have their own Wikipedia entries...

But, of course, I gather that the purpose of the assignment is not "learn this material", but rather, "practice writing a letter". (And possibly in a 2nd language, which deserves respect.) So.

Breaking out questions in order received:

"Can you recommend any new or upcoming authors to us?"

I'm very fond of Megan Whalen Turner's series starting with The Thief. That would keep you going for five books right there. I can also rec the works of Patricia C. Wrede -- her The Enchanted Forest Chronicles are very popular. Neither of these are exactly new, as I don't keep up with even my own genre. Now that I'm blogging on Goodreads, which makes it easy, I've taken to dropping short reviews of whatever I happen to have read, which you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Naturally, they are not filtered for children, since I am 68. Lots of manga lately, in part due to improved access, in part due to my eye issues.

"What keeps you motivated during creative slumps?"

Formerly, running out of money. Half a story is about as economically useful as half a bridge. These days, as well as formerly, a story demands its own completion. Think of an unfinished story as like an imaginary splinter in the mind, which cannot heal till the thing is out.

"How did you come up with the idea for your book?"

Oh, dear, such an assignment question. Don't worry, I don't blame you. But it is not answerable unless you specify which of my 30 or so works you are asking about. Conveniently, your classmate has already asked it in a more general way: answer here. https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

An additional note to pass on to teachers generally: if you are doing this, and have one or a few target authors, get the kids who are targeting the chosen author together in groups to collate their questions and send them as one letter, not six or sixteen near-duplicates. Alternately, some teachers do the collating themselves as a class exercise. (This also has the privacy advantage that the return address can be to the school, when this is done on paper or even email, not all the kids' homes or home e-addys.) My YA-writing friends are pathetically grateful to teachers who think to do their assignments this way.

(And Angelley, good luck on your reading and writing!)

Ta, L.
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Hello, Lois McMaster Bujold. I'm Jenibelle and I would like to ask some questions. Here are my questions. Do you find it hard writing books?, Where can you find most of your ideas?, And for most of your stories, Do you see yourself as the main character? I hope I get a response.
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Belle --

See also my answers to your classmates, some of which I will cross-link. https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

"Do you find it hard writing books?"

Yes.

"Where can you find most of your ideas?"

Answered here, among other places: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

"And for most of your stories, Do you see yourself as the main character?"

No, my stories are not written as self-inserts. Most of them explore very different lives than my own. That said, all my characters, major and minor, hero or villain, have to come in some sense out of my own mind, experience, and knowledge. Until I have internalized a character to some degree, I cannot know what they will say when they open their mouth to speak, let alone what they will do or how they will react in a given situation.

I've also described this as stepping into a character's skin/body/mind and wrapping it around me, but it's their skin, not mine.

Best of luck to you in your reading and writing...

Ta, L.

(Wow, whichever kid has the bad luck to be last in the queue is going to get short shrift. Must try to even it up somehow...)
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Good day ma'am I am Francine Pefanio a student from Naga National High School and I just want to ask you some questions for being a good author First... Do you view writing as a spiritual practice? Second.. What period of your life you started writing most often? (child, teenager, young adult) Third.. How did you come up with the idea? uhmm.. How long does it take you to write a book? lastly.. When did you first r
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Francine --

I see you seem to be in the same class as this: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

Breaking out your questions in order,

"First... Do you view writing as a spiritual practice?"

Ah, there's a different question, very good. No, not as such, but writing by its nature entails enormous amounts of self-reflection and self-awareness, if sometimes in a rather dissociative way. It also depends on how one defines "spiritual", and whether it is to be sought outside the self or within the self, or both.

"What period of your life you started writing most often?"

Answered in part here: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1... But certainly my early 30s were when I grew serious about productivity. It wasn't just a hobby at that point.

"Third.. How did you come up with the idea? "

Duplicate question, answered in the link/s above.

"How long does it take you to write a book?"

Mine have varied from ten months to four years, depending on pressure and interruptions.

Your last question was cut off by the character limit of the questions box. If it is not a duplicate, you may ask it again.

Good luck with your reading and writing!

Ta, L.
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Good day Ma'am Lois! Hi I'm Gabrielle from Philippines. Im a big fan of the books you wrote. Uhmm Can i ask you a question?
Lois McMaster Bujold Five points to Hufflepuff for asking first!

You are welcome to ask any question that your classmates have not already asked and had answered. (See https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1... and following. And previous.)

Ta, L.
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Greetings ma'am Lois . It's a pleasure knowing you ma'am I'm one of your fans here in the phillippines... Can I ask you some questions ma'am... It would be a great honor to me .. Here are my questions ma'am .. How did it start ma'am?What or who are your inpirations? How do you feel while writing your stories ? What books you can recomend on us? Thank you ma'am...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Last in the queue, you unfortunate student...

See here https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1... and linked for more.

"How did it start ma'am?"

A great many questions about my early writing career are answered earlier in this column -- scroll down -- in my interviews http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth... , in my nonfiction work Sidelines: Talks and Essays, and in The Vorkosigan Companion.

But really, I think all imaginative creation starts in childhood with "Let's pretend!" games, and goes on to thinking imaginatively about fiction one has read or watched. From there it's a very short jump to wanting to make such creations oneself. (Fanfiction is frequently a normal first step, depending on the models one has encountered.)

"What or who are your inpirations?"

Really this goes back to modeling, referenced above. A huge amount of human learning happens through modeling, copying the thing done by another whether the thing is how to throw a volleyball or how to write a story. Short answer would be "All the fiction I have read and liked." Specifics are answered elsewhere as per references. (Do I need to say, copy does not mean plagiarize -- it means making one's very own thing after the mode demonstrated.)

"How do you feel while writing your stories ?"

Since stories can take up to years to compete, quite a few things. I'm always most excited to be either beginning or ending a piece; the middles are always a slog.

"What books you can recomend on us?"

Answered elsewhere in this batch, and in this column.

Good luck on your further reading and writing --

Ta, L.
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Is there any chance that "The Flowers of Vashnoi" will be published by Subterranean like the Penric novellas?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, it is contracted to SubPress and in the production pipeline. I believe it's scheduled for sometime next summer. (It's not up on their site for preorder yet.) When I get a firm date, I will post it to my blog.

Ta, L.
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Thank you ma'am for responding My question us who/ what inspires you to make stories? and what can you say to the people who read your stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold The "what inspires" question was asked and answered generally elsewhere in this batch from your classmates. The not-quite-facetious answer is that I think writing fiction is a dissociative disorder; the more economic, my need for a job I could blend with care of my two preschool children in the middle of the recession of 1982 in a small town in Ohio. After that, there was a reward feedback loop -- people like this thing, do more.

What I want to say to the people who read my stories are the stories themselves. Anything else, including all PR (publicity -- like this blog, for example), is, as one of my characters quips somewhere, persiflage, camouflage, or just plain flage. It's why I prefer, when I'm forced to write anything, to write Afterwords not introductions. Some writers want to be famous. I want not to get in the way of the stories.

That said, a minimum amount of fame is required to sell anything; people at least have to be able to remember and spell a writer's name in order to find their books. (For the record, again, Bujold is my surname and B is the letter my books should be shelved under. The McMaster is my maiden name that I use as my middle name. No hyphens.)

Ta, L.
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Over the course of the last not-quite two years, I've often found myself wondering what the Imperial Auditors would do when their appointing emperor passed and a Nero, a Caligula, a Yuri, or a Serg succeeded to the camp stool. Have you ever written about this and I've just overlooked it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I haven't written about it, so you haven't missed anything. Among the unsettled but likely possibilities are that appointments automatically end with an emperor's death, requiring the new sitting emperor to re-up the appointment or allowing him to clean the slate and start over with his own choices, or some mix of both. Interregnums or more than one person being declared emperor by assorted factions opens yet more possibilities for hijinks.

Ta, L.
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Gregor must have an in case regent designated. Miles do you think?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, and not Miles. There are plenty of other senior people in the Empire who might step up to the plate in the less fraught times than those Ezar and Aral faced. Laisa or Laisa-plus-small Regency Council -- Laisa, somebody senior military, somebody senior civil government being one of many possibilities.

Ta, L.
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I just finished/loved the Penric's Demon series. The Cantons are cozy as heck and the Empire has that Byzantine motif that's right down my alley. Anyway, I wanted to know what role jesters play, if any, in the world of Chalion. I assume they'd fall within the Bastard's province, but just how religious would they be? The idea of a jester-divine brings a smile to my face haha
Lois McMaster Bujold
So glad you've found Penric! I don't know if the notion of a court jester or allowed fool is in circulation in the realms around Chalion et. al. -- they don't have knights or knighthood, after all. But if so, the job might well have affiliation with the Bastard (though not in Quadrene lands). The individual could have their personal soul's allegiance to any of the gods, depending, and their degree of religious devotion or lack of same, too, would vary with the person.

Ta, L.
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Can uh give me some best slogans of chemistry ?? at least 3_4 It should be based on subject chemistry uh can give it in a funny way or the words used in chemistry such as organic inorganic etc....but the slogan should rhymed it shouldn't seem that it's a thought or a quote.....please can uh reply me till 2morrow plssssssss???
Lois McMaster Bujold

Have no idea what this is. I'd guess it's someone wanting to get me to do their homework, but I can't imagine what the assignment would be, though the deadline does suggest it. Anyone wants to have a go in the comments section, feel free.

Ta, L.

(For the record, I never did my own kids' homework, either. Nor, in many cases, mine.)
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What fantasy and sci-fi authors have most inspired you? Both before you started writing and while writing...
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm pretty sure I've answered this one before, a couple of times, earlier in the Q&A column; scroll down. But to recap, pretty much everyone who was published in Analog Magazine in the 60s, and whatever I could find on my libraries' shelves during that decade. Worth particular mention are Cordwainer Smith, Poul Anderson, Randall Garrett, Anne McCaffrey, Zenna Henderson, L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, Eric Frank Russell, Tolkien of course, early Zelazny, and Fritz Leiber.

When I started writing, I had the most help from Patricia C. Wrede and Lillian Stewart Carl. (By that point, reading nonfiction became more useful for inspiring stories.)

Ta, L.
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Just started reading "Starship's Mage" and came across the character of Victor Rotha, an arms dealer who is a dwarf. How did that come about?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since I have not read the book in question, I have no idea. Might be a homage? Fanfiction? You are asking the wrong author, really.

Ta, L.
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Do you ever write stories about your worlds and characters that, for whatever reason, you can't publish? I.e. crossing over universes, alternate universe, divergent timeline, or just situations that would be impossible in the canon but you want to see anyway?
Lois McMaster Bujold
While I may have run such thoughts through my mind, if not often, I've never had the time or energy to divert to writing anything like that out. If I can write (or even imagine) at all, I'd rather be writing pay copy that I can actually share.

Littering the mental roadside along the way are doubtless the desiccated corpses of story ideas that never gained traction and were superceded, but I don't give them much brain room either.

Ta, L.
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Thank you, I just finished the Flowers of Vashnoi and loved it, as all the Vorkosigan books. Please carry on writing them :). Some authors spoil things when they go on and on but yours continue to delight. I loved Gentleman Jolie too. Not really a question, more a hope?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad you've enjoyed my work! I have no idea what, if anything, is next, except that it will likely appear more slowly. I will post all publishing news of note on my blog, of course, though by their nature subrights and reprints dominate the stream.

Ta, L.
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Any history behind the name Dag? I see it in the Vorkosiverse (Dag Benin) and of course the main character in the Sharing Knife/Wide Green World series, and I swear there was at least one other character with that name somewhere.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's a real Danish (iirc) man's name, meaning "day". And it's short, making two marks in its favor. I first saw it in the news attached to Dag Hammer...(schold, skold, it's been a half century) who was Secretary-General of the UN back in the 50s or 60s, who seemed vaguely heroic to my young mind.

I'm also told, much more recently, that it's a slang Aussie term for the clumps of soil dangling from a sheep's hind end, so I likely won't use it again. Sadly.

Ta, L.
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Any favorite quotes from your books? Mine are "you should see what I do to kittens!" from Brothers in Arms, and "Are you out of my mind?" from Mira's Last Dance.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm rather fond of Cordelia's recent remark, "What is love but delight in another human being?" I think it cuts through a lot of clutter.

Ta, L.
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My husband and I would like to see more of Miles and Mark. Maybe miles dealing with his children, one just as maniac as he is. Also Mark and his girlfriend and the trouble they get into. Also I hear there is a new Miles book coming out, what is the name of it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have no idea where you could have heard of a new Miles book coming out; it is not so. (If this is a misconstrual about the untitled, unfinished novella I read from at Dreamhaven last night, that was set in the world of The Sharing Knife. No idea when or if it will be finished, though.)

As for the rest, some of it may be a job for Fanficwoman. But it is always heartening to hear that my characters seem to have lives that spill over and beyond their pages.

Ta, L.
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Ms Bujold: Have you considered writing the story of Count Piotr's war, or perhaps part of the history Duv Galeni has written?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. (Not for lack of fans asking, mind you.)

Ta, L.
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I loved novels starring Cordelia, who is my favorite character in the series, and was wondering if any more are planned, particularly ones focusing just on her? I also particularly loved the Cetaganda novel, so any chance of something like that in the future, perhaps one more heavily Cetagandan in POV? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
No such planned. (I assume you have already found Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.)

Ta, L.
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hi Lois, I'm a Reader beginner what's your advice for me?
Lois McMaster Bujold
If you are asking about my books, the reading-order guide is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

If you are asking about reading in general, the people answering, perhaps in the comments section below, would need to know things like your reading level, whether English is your first or second language, and what sorts of books you like already, or some similar clues to your tastes, to guide you toward some likely-to-be-happy choices.

Ta, L.
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Hi I'm writing a fantasy short story and I'm unsure how to write a main character having a flashback as someone else.  Say if the characters name is John and he's having a flashback as another chara called Sally do I use John said or Sally said within the flashback? Cheers 
Lois McMaster Bujold Like all stylistic questions, the answer is It Depends. I would say Sally, but whether you could make that work would depend on how smoothly you set up the transition in and out of the flashback, embedding the necessary clues and traffic signals for the reader. Which might depend in turn on what reason your point-of-view character is channeling the memories of another person or personality.

For writing advice generally, I always rec Pat Wrede's book Wrede on Writing; also her blog, http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Ta, L.
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what is some books you made?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Complete brief guide here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L.
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Would you care to join this group for upcoming authors? https://www.goodreads.com/group/invite/770270-new-authors?invite_token=MTkwZjAxY2QtZTM4OC00YjAxLWFkMGItNTllODlmNDlmODI2&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copypastegroup
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, but others might be interested.

L.
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Maybe this has been asked before: when rereading/revising/spellchecking your Vorkosigan saga for publishing on digital platforms, was there anything that you thought you might like to go back and revise or change in hindsight?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sure, but I try to limit the impulse to typos or clear infelicities of grammar or construction. Plus the occasional adverb kill or extirpation of a word-echo, or regularizing capitalization or spelling of neologisms. In earlier passes, I spent a lot of time tidying italics, as for mechanical reasons I'd avoided them in my first few works. (My daisy-wheel printer used to jam when going back over lines to underline, the then-current method of signalling to the (human!) typesetter that the word was to be italicized when the pages were composited. Instead I had to go over every page with a straight-edge and pen to hand-enter them. Also earlier with my old electric typewriter and carbons, though I forget what its problem was with backing up to underline. Electronic files now make this concern obsolete, yay!)

Perpetually rewriting old books is a temptation to be resisted, first because it would be a bottomless task that would swallow all new work, second because that other Lois of 20 or more years ago was another person, and I don't exactly have the right to alter her work. Though once in a great while I find a line has been widely misread or misconstrued by some significant number of readers, and I have to think hard about whether to violate that historical principle. Words changing their meanings or usage over generational time is yet another thorny problem.

The temptation is automatically limited with works on paper, as changes can only be made when a new edition is printed. E-books, argh.

Ta, L.
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A friend on a Bujold centered email list says today is your birthday. Many Happy Returns of the Day, with lots of maple mead or bug butter ice cream. Did you do something fun?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes! It was very self-indulgent. Treated myself to a massage, hit Lund's/Byerly's grocery for decadent supplies, swung by the library, watched some of the anime series I'm presently binging on till I ran out of DVDs, then spent the rest of the time reading. Perfect cocooning plan for a gray November day.

I will have the dinner out later in the month, with my usual birthday dinner round-robin group, but I prefer to avoid restaurants on Fridays and Saturdays, having become crankily allergic to noise and crowds.

Ta, L.
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My mother and I share a love of your books. I have all of your Penric novellas in ebook, but she only reads print. I would love to give her the novellas for her 80th bday, but Penric's Demon is not in print...so I can't even get her started. Do you know if it is going to be back in print any time soon? I have searched online and can only find one used copy for $190...which is a little out of my price range :)
Lois McMaster Bujold A print edition is planned, or rather, two collections of three novellas each, but they will likely not be in time for a birthday before late next year. I will post on my blog when all is finalized and there are more details to impart.

Speaking as an older reader, I'm adoring my tablet computer (an Android Pixel C, in my case) with Kindle app for most of my own reading these days. It turns every e-book into a large print book (eye issues, argh), and is lighter and easier to hold than any paper book (arthritis issues, also argh. I prop mine up on a cushion on my lap and don't have to hold it at all.) The initial learning curve -- tap where? -- was as usual maddening, but with a few days' practice became entirely worthwhile. (Mine taught me some moves to manage my soon-added Smartphone, as well.) And a general-purpose tablet is not limited to the Kindle app. For a gift that keeps on giving, you might, if your budget extends (or can be combined with siblings') think about giving her a tablet for reading. And, if you are especially good and techie children, setting it all up for her. (My son did mine for me, heh.)

Other advantages: being able to check out or return library e-books for free, any time day or night, without having to drive anywhere; ditto buying books, pulling them out of the air. There are also thousands of older classic books up for free, many also readily accessible through the Kindle app.

Ta, Lois.
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Will Gregor ever get a book?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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My sister just told me that the last book in the Queen's Thief series will be out in March 2019. "Return of the Thief" Had you heard? Thank you so much for recommending this author. I'm still passing her on to friends and family.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I hadn't heard, but it's good news!

Ta, L.
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I've just finished reading the Miles Vorkosigan series for the fourth time. Hungry for more. Is it possible to explore with your books: Sgt Taura's last days? Gen Count Piotr's days during the Cetagandan occupation? More of Countess Cordelia's post-Aral days? These are all story lines that bear exploration, and your countless loyal fans would devour them
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm so glad my work stands up for you over multiple rereadings. As per your request, I can only answer it as I have others before; nothing new is planned at this time.

Ta, L
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I don't know if you'll see this or if you can get the word out in time, but just in case … Did you know "Paladin of Souls" is available for Kindle TODAY ONLY (Nov 21) for 1.99? https://www.amazon.com/Paladin-Souls-Chalion-Book-2-ebook/dp/B000FC138Q
Lois McMaster Bujold Saw it, yep. Got a post up, too, if a little late off the mark.

Ta, L.
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Iirc, you recommended the Griffin & Whyborne series; I've recently found a writer with similarly themed work and am wondering if you'd ever tried her -- K J Charles? There's even a Tor.com article (https://bit.ly/2FCtuSH) Just curious about your response, that's all.
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, I've read quite a bit of Charles. I reviewed a few in my My Books space, if you scroll back. Favorite so far was The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ,for its Victoriana-pastiche values among other things.

Ta, L.
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Do you have a favorite historical mystery series? I really like how Penric #2&3 reminded me of the atmosphere of the above genre. Penric's Fox especially made me realize how cool of a combo fantasy and mystery can be. Same with the Bastard cult mystery in the beginning of Cazaril's story. Happy Holidays, Elto
Lois McMaster Bujold I've dipped into several such. Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series sticks in my mind. Sherlock Holmes and Peter Wimsey are only historical by default, these days. There are actually rather a lot of fantasy-mystery crossovers out there, since one must give one's characters something to do, and Great War for the Fate of the World stories are getting really old.

For an older but still splendid entry in the genre, I expect the Lord Darcy stories by Randall Garrett still hold up.

The trick with a fantasy mystery, I think, is that there be a fantasy element both integral and fair in the mystery part.

Ta, L.
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Listening for the first time the audio version of the Penric novellas, I found a great similarity between Desdemona, and how Penric views her as unique being and repository of knowledge through centuries (and what a waste it would be to lose it) AND the Trill like Dax from Star Trek Universe. Is it a coincidence or not ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Coincidence; I barely watched that era of Star Trek. But notions of various sorts of spiritual or alien body possession or sharing have been kicking around fantasy and SF since before they were even genres. For earlyish examples on the SF side, Heinlein's The Puppet Masters for a negative, Hal Clement's Needle for a positive spin, both of which I read back in the 60s. For fantasy, too numerous to list. Who knows how many variations in anime by now.

Not a new or unique idea. Whatever freshness any given writer may bring to it is all in the details. On the other hand, no one complains that they've already read one story about a human being, they don't need to read any more...

Ta, L.
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With respect to uterine replicators, would the mother-to-be still have the option of breast feeding their newly decanted baby? Just something that popped into my head, wondering how nursing would fit into the different classes of Barryar society. I assume it mean manipulating certain hormones, but would it be something even done?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Vorkosiverse would certainly have it within easy options to medically arrange the mother's (or wet-nurse's) hormones however she or it pleased. (*) Well-understood biology, by that time. In most places, it would be considered a personal choice.

There would also be the option of vat-made human milk, I have no doubt. (Or any other kind.)

* - Also, Athos. Who knows what they consider culturally normal, though I'd bet on vat milk there. Probably.

L.
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This isn’t a ?, just a word of thanks. I was introduced to the Vorkosigan saga this June and today I finished Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Thank you so very much for creating this universe full of crazy, real, lovable characters! For the last 5 months your books brought me hours of joy but also made me think and question myself. A separate “thank you”for the latter.
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are entirely welcome!

It's good to know the series still holds up for new readers in a new millennium, so many years after its inception. (It takes me aback to realize this series is now older than some of its readers. If you were born after 1982 for first writing, or 1986 for first publication. That's... getting to be a lot of people.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You need to read Shards of Honor more carefully. It's all in there, some by implication.

Note also that none of the following books are from Cordelia's viewpoint. This closely shapes and constrains what information leaks through. Miles doesn't actually know everything about everything, as much as he would like to; or else the stories don't touch on Cordelia at all, being off-planet or whatever. After a certain point, she would also have been reticent for Jole's sake, as was Aral.

Viewpoint matters, people. Hugely. (At least in tight-third or first person narratives. In real life, too.)

Ta, L.
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Any chance your wonderful quote about honor / reputation was inspired by W.C. Fields? "It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to"? I was at a diner in New Hampshire recently that had a number of pithy quotes, and when I read that one, your quote immediately came to mind.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. I'd never heard that one, actually. (It's rather good, though.)

Ta, L.
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I love your books! Who is your inspiration when it comes to writing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This question makes the odd assumption that there is a singular answer. But to answer in full would take typing out my entire biography, which there is no space (nor endurance) to do here.

However, if you scroll back through this Q&A column, you will find a lot of similar questions asked and answered previously, which should cover it. (Since there are something like 600+ entries so far, this should keep you busy for a while.)

There is also this: http://www.dendarii.com/biolog.html

and other older material on the site, and a pile of interview links at the Vorkosigan wiki,

http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Auth...


Ta, L.
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Did you write Ethan and Labyrinth at the same time? Ethan clearly comes first but Elli mentions an 8 foot tall bioengineered super soldier in it. Was it your decision or GG's that Enrique should lose his Escobaran accent? I suppose he could have lost it in the 4 years between ACC and Flowers...
Lois McMaster Bujold Ethan was the third novel I'd ever written, in 1985, before I sold any. (Shards was first and Warrior's Apprentice was second.) "Labyrinth" and "The Mountains of Mourning" were written around 1988 - 1989 to accompany "The Borders of Infinity", which had been written in mid-1986 for another Baen anthology, into a collection all my own. Borders of Infinity (first pubbed Oct. 1989).

I have no idea who or what GG may be. I don't believe Enrique's accent was mentioned one way or another in "Flowers".

Ta, L.
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Sorry if you've answered this before but every time I read Barrayar (more than 5 times at this point) it pops into my head: are all the "I didn't vote for him" comments about Steady Freddie just a running joke for you, an inside joke among Betans or a side hint that their society isn't as democratically perfect as it seems? Or something else entirely? Thanks so much for the amazing books!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes to all three -- running gag, inside joke among at least the Survey types, and no, Beta isn't nearly as perfect as some Betans would have outsiders believe -- plus an effect of my living through many decades of American democracy.

Ta, L.
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For legal reasons, do you have to stay completely clear of fan-fiction related to your books/novellas? I'm wondering if you ever get a glimpse of their canonical and non-canonical writing? There are some quite inspired fan authors that we readers have the freedom to enjoy. I wonder what restrictions you have.
Lois McMaster Bujold There used to be an alarming theory that writers should be required to actively extirpate fan fiction or lose their own rights, but really, about ten million fanfics have been written about Harry Potter, and no one (sane) is arguing that J. K. Rowling does not therefore possess her own copyrights. The concern, I think, belongs to a previous technological era. Nuisance lawsuits can happen to anyone, anywhere, for any reason, so I don't think pro writers are especially vulnerable.

Actual plagiarism in professionally published media is covered under a different set of laws and social rules.

Hollywood is another smoke, with a much larger audience having therefore a much larger number, if not necessarily percentage, of nutbars in it, and more money in play to attract predators and scavengers. Production companies are picky about clear rights for valid historical reasons.

Also, the boundaries are too fuzzy to sensibly identify. What about filk? Poetry? Alternate Universe or Crossover fics? Unlikely porn? The list goes on. I certainly consider filk fair game, for starters.

Note that there could be no restriction I can imagine on me reading fanfic in other fandoms... :-)

Ta, L.
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In Mirror Dance, the gang encounters a growth-accelerated clone who's been surgically altered to have large, exaggerated breasts and hips. Mark (or maybe it was Miles? I think Mark) reasons that the clone must be a sex-change case. Can you explain why he came to that conclusion? I don't understand the connection.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Speculation on Mark's part, but presumably he must have seen a few cases like that, plus variations, before when he was growing up in the clone creche.

Ta, L.
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Hey, dear Lois, I am a new author and I have troubles everywhere since I am really new, how can get reviews, followers and make my writing career well established and also get traditional publishers? Thank you for the answer
Lois McMaster Bujold
Start by writing and finishing the actual, y'know, book. Everything else you list comes after.

For more general writing advice, this column is invariably sensible:

http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Start back at the beginning and read up.

There are approximately one million other online writing and marketing columns out there, of variable utility, most drawing on experiences from this millennium, which my own are not. Perhaps commenters could list some more they think good.

Ta, L.
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Is Winterfair held on the Winter Solstice, or just close to it? In any case, on the Solstice in the US, I wish you and all Bujold readers a happy Winterfair and may Father Frost bring you as much joy as the writings of LMB have brought to me. (I just finished a re-listen to Winterfair Gifts!!)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, it's centered around winter solstice on Barrayar. It is also connected with some sort of intercalary week/10 days/Saturnalia that is inserted every year to make the Earth-origin 12-month calendar come out even with the actual revolution of the planet around its sun. (At one point I posited, but never used, the notion that every Barrayaran month is exactly 4 weeks/28 days, leaving some more time to adjust at the end.) The whole fudge-factor period is also dubbed "Winterfair".

Ta, L.
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What’s the background of Jole as a character? He plays a very quiet role in earlier books—when did you decide he and Aral were lovers?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Jole was first developed in 1989, when he popped into The Vor Game and was so vibrant and suggestive despite his short time on stage. The strong possibility occurred to me then, but that wasn't what that (or subsequent) books were about so it remained more imagined potential than developed. The Sergyar section of any of the characters' biographies couldn't occur till I decided to send Aral and Cordelia off to Sergyar when I wrote Memory in the mid 90s.

Following VK books had other characters and business, not to mention settings, to explore, and then there was that long stretch entirely away from the series when I was writing the two fantasy series. So it didn't switch from potential to kinetic till after that. And then the relationships finally became thematically and plot relevant to the book at hand, aka "more fun with uterine replicators: the next generation (-al shift)", with both gender and generational issues to explore versus the technology, in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen and so Jole went, a bit belatedly, to center stage. (Because, you know, for all the character-and-relationship drama, this is supposed to be science fiction, here.)

Ta, L.
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Is there be more books from Vorkosiverse after Miles become a baron?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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The last books of the Vorkosigan’s saga looked like a sort of “the kids are all right”. You fixed Ivan, Simon , then Cordelia with Jole, and of course Miles and his family. Right now, when I think about miles and its universe, 3 things still need fixings. 1 Jackson hole, 2 Athos, 3 Barrayar empire and the long in the making constitution. Any chance to see any of these thing developed?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That would be the sort of thing written by a writer with a passion for political fiction.

(My interest is psychological studies, if you haven't figured that out by now.)

Ta, L.

...what about Athos do you imagine needs fixing? They looked like they were doing OK when last seen...
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Reading 'Mirror Dance', I was just out of Premed, and our psychology professor had vividy described anorexia nervosa, where the adolescent uses her own body to obtain control that the overbearing family otherwise denies her. Mark's coping mechanism is quite similar, regaining a measure of control that way. Did you come up with this on your own, or did you actually use current research? Both would be quite impressive!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mark came mainly from, well, insight into Mark. He is largely his own invention, in more ways than one. (Also from my own notions about the fundamental biological bases of behavior.) Since the book was written in the early 90s -- 1992 - 93 -- I'll have to acquit me of using "current" research. Or even then-current research, beyond what leaked in from the general culture.

Ta, L.
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I may agree that Barrayar’s politics have been seen and very good in A civil Campaign so I can do without the constitution. About Jackson hole instead, I think there is a lot to do and it is something that Mark should take care of. Should be the last of “the kids are all right” (even if i’d stay in your marvelous universe for ever and ever, I understand you like to go there less after so many wonderful years)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Any actual sequel would just spawn fractal possibilities for other sequels, so short of blowing up the galaxy, which seems wasteful, there is no "end".

Though there is fanfiction out there, if you're desperate.

I'd actually like to get back to Penric, myself, but I don't have the pieces I need to settle on a specific tale yet.

Ta, L.
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Lily huh? Good. Definitely a hanging thread. Nice present. If there's an audio will it be the same narrator as the other 4? Hope it means another Hugo!
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Name TBA" novella-ish evades any novella award category because of its length; novel category ditto. It's off the hook for that straight out of the gate.

No word on audio or a print version -- it hasn't even been finished in final revision (my least favorite part of writing, urgh, so there is some loin-girding yet to go, here) and submitted, let alone contracted, after all. Neither are unlikely, but no news is no news. When there is news, I shall certainly post it.

Ta, L.
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Happy New Year Lois. My question is that I have recently published my first book (Redemption My Father's Story) and I used Covenant Books Publishing. The editing is terrible. It's distracting to the reader. I just am at a loss of how to handle this and could use some advice. I know that they sent it to me for approval and I regret that. I'm in no way an editor and I told them that. Any thoughts, please?
Lois McMaster Bujold I am going to throw this one open to the commenters, since I have no idea what sort of publisher, or scam, Covenant Books may be. Normal publishers allow the writer to make corrections at the line-edit, the copy-edit, and the page-proof stage. Which are up to the writer to make good. If you did not do so, the result is on you, not them.

(There are horror tales of messes occurring between page-proof approval and publication, which other published writers will have to supply; I've been mostly lucky. Except on a few reprints where, because they were setting from old files, I didn't think I'd need to read the page proofs again, wrong, sigh.)

Although I am not entirely sure whether you are referring to actual editing, where the line editor makes substantive suggestions to improve the work that the writer carries out (or elects not to, or comes up with alternate fixes), or copy-editing, where minor errata are addressed, or final page proofs, after final formatting and typesetting, to winkle out the last typos and similar glitches. (The next stop is Readers' Eyes, at which point it is Too Late.)

But, really, learning to edit your own material is one of the basic tasks and duties of a writer. Because you can't trust anyone else, even at a pro publisher. If you can't send in a manuscript as close to camera-ready as humanly possible... then you need to go over it again. Yourself. Though perhaps with help from friends or a crit group, or whatever online resources you can access for your specific weak issues.

Ta, L.
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Do you have any plans for making an audiobook out of the (admittedly remote) connection to the Vorkosigan Saga in Dreamweaver's Dilemma ? For all us completionists out there....
Lois McMaster Bujold Later: Actually, it's in here:

https://www.downpour.com/proto-zoa?sp...

Nope.

It's a short story, for pity's sake...

(My first, as it happened. Very much a practice piece.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Which story? I have over 30 of 'em.

Although, in all cases, the answer is no. No media adaptations of my work have yet been made.

(Well, except for that one early short story "Barter", made into a half-hour episode by Tales from the Darkside, which had so little to do with the story I wrote I coldn't figure out why they even bothered to license the rights. No one would ever have guessed a connection.)

Ta, L.
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I have been consistently amazed by your deep understanding and clear depiction of people: how they think and feel, their motivations and fears, how they can be led effectively and influenced. How did you develop your understanding of people and leadership? It seems uncanny and wonderful.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm, hard to answer, since much of my writing is intuitive rather than consciously constructed. But I suppose decades of direct observation of people (especially including myself), personal experience, doings; more at a remove, reading, watching, listening and more reading. My theories of human behavior are based to the degree my understanding allows in the patterns of the deep biological and bio-social substrate of all primate humans, as contrasted with particular cultures or associations (although the group dynamics of all kinds of human associations and how and why they assemble themselves is itself a study.) "Accidents versus essences" is the way I sometimes shorthand it for myself. Or, "Culture is what biology uses to clothe itself." And, sometimes, to disguise itself.

Also, do keep in mind, when you are reading certainly fiction but also nonfiction as well, what you are experiencing is not the world, but the inside of another writer's head. Which is a thing to be marveled at in itself, but, as the old saying goes, the map is not the territory.

Ta, L.
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One of my favorite relationships is that between Penric and Llewyn though we only get to see it a few times. I've always wondered if there is something more intimate between Llewyn and her secretary than that between employer and employee. I feel like you almost hint so, but I might just need better glasses for reading between the lines. Also, could Desdemona have chatted with Llewyn while Penric was asleep-in theory?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, I'd like to do more with Penric and his Princess-Archdivine sometime, though no obvious plot has yet reported for duty, only insufficient bits. The nice thing about ala carte e-publishing is that it doesn't set a series order in stone, or print. I can jump around anywhere in Pen's timeline if I want.

I will leave more intimate personal speculation about Llewyn and her long-time faithful secretary and friend to the fanficcers, methinks. Note they are both sworn members of the Daughter's Order, not the Bastard's Order, fwiw.

Des seems to go off-line when Penric is unconscious or asleep, cut off from the world just as he is. It might be the first sign of a demon, oops, ascending to take over the sorcerer's body if the demon could seize the wheel during unconsciousness, Jekyll & Hyde fashion, but that speculation is not established in text at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hi , i want perfect short story book . The pages are about 20-30?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Anybody have any suggestions...?

L.
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How did you start writing and how did you keep momentum by writing a whole book?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Some answers here:

https://www.amazon.com/Sidelines-Essa...

Some here:

https://www.amazon.com/Vorkosigan-Com...

Some here:

https://www.google.com/search?client=...

Some here:

http://www.dendarii.com/

And a whole bunch just by scrolling down to the start of this Q&A column and reading up.

That should keep you busy for a while...

Ta, L.
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Which author books are best to read&comfort &I choosing books are funny ,ethics,family ,frnds, relationship type books are I want which one books are better to choose to me p/z give suggestion to me which author I choose.. with my mind set..???
Lois McMaster Bujold Jennifer Crusie sounds like a good choice for you.

Other recs, commenters?

Ta, L.
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How long is the book?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Er, which one?

If you are referring to the just-published "Knife Children", it's about 52,000 words. Structurally, functionally, and in price a novella, though a tad overweight for the official category.

If anything else, you'll have to specify.

Ta, L.
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Ms Bujold Did you know Ursula Le Guin? I ask because (doh) I can't ask her... I just reread "Coming of Age in Karhide", one of her best shorts, set in Gethen/Winter https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2690808608 (which has a link to the story. Anyway -- The Gethenian aren't homo saps -- we are the exceptions in the world of mammals, being permanently in kemmer -- a perversion, to their eyes. [to be con'd]
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answer, such as it is, on next rock...

L.
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[continued on next rock] What I wonder is, how likely her fictional biology might be? She hypothesized a long-ago genetic manipulation of the ancestral Gethenians (who were homo saps??), for the ambisexual bit that was such a hit in "Left Hand of Darkness". Since you are something of an sfnal expert on alternate human biology & sexuality.... GR has a very short word limit on these queries! TIA, Pete Tillman
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think you want an actual biologist or biology/evolution pop sci or scientific book/article to answer this question, and as recent as possible -- basically, anything published in the biological sciences more than five years old is likely to be out of date. Sometimes, more than one year old. But the peculiarities of human mating cycles compared to the other primates have been commented-upon since, gosh, Desmond Morris? Speaking of out-of-date pop sci.

I briefly met Le Guin exactly once, at a convention many years ago, so cannot pretend to speak for her in any way. Note, though, that in most works of fiction there will be at least two levels, representation and metaphor, and it is as well not to confuse one with the other.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing like that planned from me at this time.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, Love your series, especial Cordelia's and Miles', read them all and got friends and family hooked on your books too. Most recently, Flowers for Vashnio, nicely done. I was wondering if we will see Miles sleuthing around again any time soon? Also, how does one go about requesting a review for their published work? Thanks, Yvonne Rediger VIC Shapeshifter Series Musgrave Landing Mysteries.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing planned at this time.

Re: your other question, others on the internet would be more up to date on these PR issues than I am.

On that head, I've lately received a slew of stealth attempts to parasitize my blog or Q&A with covert ads, links, and promotions for other people's totally unrelated books. I thought the first few might just be clueless newbies with bad netiquette, but as they've kept coming I suspect someone is telling new writers to do things like this. Don't.

Ta, L.
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Lois, I would never persume to write inside another author's work. That was not my question. I've read your book reviews on Facebook. How did you choose these books to review? Yvonne Rediger
Lois McMaster Bujold Ah, that's a different question.

I don't choose books to review. I just choose books to read, and if I've read it, I figure I might as well toss up a review if there's anything of interest to say about it. Goodreads' function makes it easy, which is why I started.

That said, I usually limit reviews to the first in a series if there is one, I don't review anything I did not finish, and I don't review everything I read.

Ta, L.
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There is more information in the average sentence you write, or the average paragraph, than most other writers I can think of. Is this consciously done? To explain what I mean, when I first saw a Michelangelo sculpture up close, I was amazed at how much information was contained in all the subtle carving choices he made. Far more observations, say, than in the Mona Lisa.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for your attentive reading! What people get out of my prose does depend to a degree on what they bring to it.

No, it's not consciously done, exactly. I do feel any paragraph should spill out, at the end, someplace further on than where it began, and therefore most sentences, from which paragraphs are made, must do so, or link up to do so, as well. Making each paragraph a unit of change in the story, if you will: in motion. And I do spend a lot of time in the editing passes improving word choice, sometimes for purely mechanical reasons like fixing word echoes, sometimes to sharpen characterization or world-building. But I don't think of that as anything other than just writing.

Ta, L.
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I have just finished "The Knife Children" and enjoyed it immensely but had hoped for an update on Dag and Fawn (and the whole Clearwater crew). Any chance of a further work with them as a focus? I would think there's lots of room to expand on the state of the new shields and their uptake, not to mention second generation doings. This whole series is one of my go to comfort reads for too many reasons to name.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you enjoyed it!

I did think, for a while early in the writing, that Barr and Lily might make it to Clearcreek, but the story had other ideas, thematically driven. You may certainly imagine them making a more social visit later on.

Nothing new is planned in this world at this time. I'm taking my projects one at a time nowadays.

Ta, L.
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How do you decide a draft is good enough to become the final one, the one that will become the book? What criteria, conscious or subconscious, do you wield?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, as I've said elsewhere, I do rolling revisions now I'm working paperless, so there is no real boundary between drafts. (This does tend to result in more editing and micro-editing of the earliest parts than the latest.) Finding "the end" is done as much by feel as anything; I know it when I see it. I also collect an array of test reads, aka beta reads, both during and at the end, which gives me a mirror in which to see the work when my own eyes don't focus anymore.

The final editing pass is always a very nervous proposition. I've described late edits and changes as like trying to swap out one card in the second layer of an eight-layer house of cards.

Other than that, I can tell the end is nigh by exhaustion; mood swings viz the work, from delight to hostility and back (though those go on in the middle as well); noting that changes are starting to muddy rather than clarify; and the ever-popular "change it and then change it back, lather, rinse, repeat" syndrome, all of which are signals that it's time to be done.

Deadlines, wanting the fun of publication, or the call of a new story also motivate putting the keyboard down and backing away. However, the phrase "a story is never finished, only abandoned" is one of those great truths. My daughter, a metals artist, also put it strikingly when she described a finished piece as "a series of decisions that I stopped making."

Ta, L.
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How do you tell other writers that ask for your advice what is wrong with their work with out hurting their feelings?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hm. Are you asking how I do it, or how you should do it?

If the latter, there are a number of good posts going back on Pat Wrede's blog that address the art of critique, both giving and receiving it:

http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

It may take a while to find them, but it will be time well spent.

Ah, better. When I typed "critique" into the blog's search box, I got all these, which might speed things up.

https://www.pcwrede.com/?s=critique

Narrowing further with "giving critique" winnows it down to this:

https://www.pcwrede.com/?s=giving+cri...

Apart from pointing out basic errors such as spelling, grammar, typos, confusing syntax, word echoes, or floating antecedents, which should be utterly routine and feeling-free, framing remarks in the mode of, "This bit did this for me. Did you really mean it to work that way?" can be helpful. Saying "you are wrong" can be argued with; saying "I had this response" really can't. Including positive remarks along with the negative also helps keep the recipient's ears open and less defensive.

As for myself, I have a very tiny circle of other writers with whom I exchange crit, all of us going back for years. Tact is still required, but we all know that for all of us, making the work as good as it can be comes before feelings. Though, granted, possibly not by much; I still sometimes have to take a day or three to digest negative crit sent my way. (It probably also helps that they all write at a high professional level already, which cuts out need for the bulk of lower-level -- but also more objective -- corrections.)

Ta, L.
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I’m wondering about this: “It bothered him extremely that he could not now remember the man's name, though he had spoken, hypocritically, at his funeral.” In The Warriors Apprentice, Miles seemed to have eschewed speaking at the dead pilot’s funeral. Am I missing something? Rob Yale
Lois McMaster Bujold You, I, or Miles; memory does funny things at that range.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, me and my brother were were wondering if you had any ideas for a new Vorkosigan book? We were thinking it'd be cool if you wrote a book based in the years of Aral's Regency... or perhaps a couples adventure featuring Miles, Ivan and their better halves.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing new planned in that direction at this time, sorry.

Ta, L.
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Don't know if you've seen this? Found it on Amazon while searching for this quote. I *hope* it's authorized/licensed by you. https://www.amazon.com/insufficient-painless-regardless-McMaster-Available/dp/B00G2SE8AW Thank you for many hours of enjoyment!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Huh. Nope, not authorized. I'll have to check it out.

Ta, L.
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I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your recent novella "Knife Children". The entire story just made me happy. I'm now re-reading the Sharing Knife books, and enjoying them all over again. Are you planning anything else with the Lakewalkers? Thanks so much for all your work!
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you enjoyed the novella! The start of it had been sitting in my head for years, and I needed to get it out.

There is nothing new in that universe planned at this time. I'm continuing to be interested in the novella length, however.

Ta, L.
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What was your inspiration for Knife Children?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, apart from the prior tetralogy, and the picture in my head that wouldn't go away that always started with Barr shaving off his Luthlian beard and going on to find the burned-down farm, there was a certain amount of reverse-inspiration from every YA novel ever about the adolescent girl/young person running away from a home where no one appreciates them, with or without the village slaughtered in their wake, and onward with magical pet to find secret powers, better mentors, improved bio-social status, heroism in the War to Save the World, etc etc.

This novella runs the classic scenario through more realistic filters, and most of all looks to see what happens when one switches the viewpoint and focus to the cast of characters who are more normally portrayed as casually dismissed collateral damage or public utilities. Thus, an exploration of the hazards of parenting, of the people who have to carry the can, rather than of adolescent empowerment.

Lots of other details from my life and experience and acquaintance, at all ages, went in as needed, but that's the structural backbone.

(There are a curiously large number of YA-centered stories out there, both pro and fan, that seem to have absolutely no idea what grownups do all day, nor how the worlds they live in are made and maintained.)

Ta, L.
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Do you know how i can buy any Miles VorKosigan ebooks that are not available on google play? I have paperbacks for all but those released after 2010... And i want to be able to read old and new in order on my phone...
Lois McMaster Bujold All of the Vorkosigan books are available as ebooks on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes. Speaking for Kindle, which I use myself, simply download the free Kindle app from the Amazon website onto your chosen device, and follow the directions. You should be up and reading in minutes. It should work fine on your smartphone. (I also have the app on my phone, as backup, though I don't use it for reading due to small-size issues.) I believe our other two vendor platforms offer something analogous.

I have a Kindle Paperwhite, but I haven't used it since I put the Kindle app on my general-purpose tablet, with its much larger screen (which will also display e-manga and color.) It turns every ebook into an instant large-print book, much appreciated by my aging eyes. (I have an Android Pixel C, but most any tablet should work the same)

The Baen e-bookstore also offers some of my stuff, possibly in more forms; check it out at Baen.com

Ta, L.
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I am a inspiring writer and I have written a book and am moving on to my second book. I am starting a science fiction book and I want to know what tips you could tell me in making your writing consistent and having your characters have good depth and your MC be able to be connected to other charters in your novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, first, wrest back control of your auto-correct feature, which is stabbing you in the back.

I am not a writing teacher -- also, characterization is not a conscious process for me, which makes it hard to break down into teachable bits -- but I promise you will find much to chew on at Pat Wrede's writing blog at http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ You can use its search function to winnow the offerings, for example by typing "characterization" or other likely keywords into the search box at the top.

I see she also has her excellent Worldbuilding piece up, now divided into subsections: https://www.pcwrede.com/fantasy-world... It focuses on fantasy, but much is equally applicable to SF.

And, of course, there is her blog collection Wrede on Writing, available as a separate ebook, very convenient.

Ta, L.
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Do you ever randomly see someone who seems to perfectly resemble the way you imagined one of your characters? I've had an experience like that recently, from a couple of books (one of them yours) and spent half a day trying to figure out where I knew them from before it dawned on me. I felt nearly foolish for almost approaching them to ask. Good thing I didn't..
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, can't say as I've ever had that experience. I have physically modeled characters from time to time off actors, at least for their jumping-off points, but they tend to mutate into their unique selves pretty quickly as the story goes on.

Ta, L.
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Rereading the series. Again. Hunting around the internet looking at publishing dates vs. story chronology I found reference took a book called Test of Honor. No summary in anything I can find. Is this an old title for a book that was named something else late?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Test of Honor was the title for an early (late 1980s) Science Fiction Book Club omnibus of Shards of Honor and The Warrior's Apprentice. My first SFBC sale, back in the day, which no doubt did its bit toward building my audience.

Dire cover, but, being a dust jacket, at least one could remove it...

Ta, L.
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A source of amusement to me is that in The Curse of Chalion the character Umegat's name is close to the phrase "Oh my God". Was this deliberate?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

I have no idea what language that notion would hold for. ...Maybe you pronounce it differently than I do? For me, it's OOM-me-gat.

Ta, L.
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I am an inspiring writer. I would like to know: would you say that writing short stories is a great way to strengthen a writer's ability to put a story on paper?
Lois McMaster Bujold
First of all, learn the difference in definition and spelling between "inspiring" and "aspiring", which I believe was the word you were actually reaching for here. (Unless you were betrayed by your auto-correct, in which case brush up on your proofreading.)

Next, read this: https://www.pcwrede.com/worst-and-bes...

And the rest of Pat's on-writing posts, while you are at it.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
In order: we don't know, not known but not outside the range of possibility, no, and no.

The gods have no interest in human politics; they are only interested in souls. They don't "fight" each other, but it is not impossible they might compete for souls in subtler ways.

Ta, L.
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Will (or has) Flowers of Vashnoi be (been) issued in a print version?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes. Subterranean Press will be doing a collectable hardcover edition like the Penric tales. Projected publication late July. I've just had a look at the cover art by Jenn Ravenna, very nice, so things are in train. Nice interior design, too.

While it is on the shorter end of the novella range in word count, about 23k words, paper publishing economics are the same and so will the price be, $25. It's also a binding that will stand up to library use. (If what you want is a cheap reading copy, you need to turn to the e-edition.)

Ta, L.

(The current official length of a novella for SFWA or Hugo purposes is defined as a story between 17,500 words and 40,000 or 45,000 words, depending. This may change in future; not my problem, though. The term's wider definition out in the world of all books is looser.)
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You do realize I wrote that book almost 20 years ago...? :-)

I just went and looked up that passage. The warning is simply one Caz scarcely needs, that they are in a public and not necessarily friendly venue, on-stage under all eyes in one of the biggest political scenes so far of Iselle's young life, and he needs to be formal and cautious in his speech.

Ta, L.
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Recently relistenned to Cetaganda and just saw Mary Poppins Returns. So, have to ask, when Miles is thinking "I never explain anything" is he channeling Mary?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

Sherlock Holmes, maybe...

Ta, L.
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Have you seen?: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/march-web-only/this-fantasy-novelist-showed-me-what-it-means-to-fear-god.html
Lois McMaster Bujold
Interesting take.

As a rule of thumb, what any reader will get out of a work is sensitively dependent on what they bring to it, since beyond the words-in-a-row blueprint the writer supplies to all identically, the construction materials are sourced locally.

A worked example of the process may be had by anyone comparing the high and low star rating reviews on any of my works, which Amazon will handily collate for one. Anyone contemplating the range who thinks, "It doesn't sound as if they read the same book," is quite right; or, more precisely, didn't experience the same book.

Ta, L.
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Here's a review of your World of the Five Gods that you may like: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/march-web-only/this-fantasy-novelist-showed-me-what-it-means-to-fear-god.html?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Saw that last question, thanks:

https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1...

Ta,L.
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In Kommar, You refer to a fast courier called a Falcon 9. I wonder if Elon Musk is a fan of the Vorkosigan series, as SpaceX has a launch vehicle called the Falcon 9? Rob Yale
Lois McMaster Bujold I think you may be asking the wrong person... :-)

That said, it's a pretty obvious name. I'd be quite willing to believe we were pulling from the same sources. Which actually happens a lot, in writing.

Ta, L.
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looking of a book I have read something like twenty years ago, but I can not remember the title of the book, so some help from anyone please. There is a man who has Telepathic abilities and he uses his abilities who robs people using his telepathic abilities through phone calls?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is not a question about my work, but I'm going to let it through anyway in case someone can answer in the comments.

Possibly there is some general SF discussion group the questioner could be directed to?

L.
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The "What's the Name of that Book" group https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/2198 might be able to help. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is in answer to the immediately-prior questioner, below if you arrange the Q&A by newest-first.

(Usually, these sorts of comments should go in the comments section of the original post, so they don't get separated.)

L.
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Do you know the endings of your books when you begin them? If you do, how much knowledge? A little? A lot?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think these process questions may have been answered at greater length earlier in this column -- people who want more are invited to scroll back. But, briefly, the answer would be different for each book but converging on "a little". My notions at the start about the end change along the route as I write my way, scene by scene, into my material, and new possibilities arise that were not yet thought-of, and could not be thought-of, back at Scene 1. So even when I think I know the ending, I often turn out to be wrong. The story only looks inevitable in retrospect.

My scene-by-scene outlines are a rolling process, scaffolding for my elusive thinking and my prose, built and taken down in a just-in-time fashion. Like nailing jello to the wall. (Which would work, come to think, if you made the jello cold and concentrated enough...)

Ta, L.
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Maybe unfair to ask since your books don't fall into this category, but what makes an author abandon a series that has an unfinished through-line? I now have 4 different series I have followed where the author seems to have abandoned them and moved on to other things without wrapping up the larger story. (Example: 18 months between each of the first 14 books. 5 years since the last one, a semi-cliffhanger.)
Lois McMaster Bujold There can be a number of different answers. A series may cease to sell well enough or be dropped by its publisher, in which case the writer may switch to something that seems more salable. Editors jump houses or companies go under, pulling out the support rug. The writer may have health or family issues. The writer may lose interest, in which case squeezing out more would be a sort of mental torture. The writer may have run out of fresh things to say about this particular set of characters or world, and be unwilling or unable to recycle and repeat. Where the story seems to want to go may be a place the writer doesn't wish to follow. The writer may have grown into other interests, so the story doesn't have any powering emotional resonance for them anymore. The zeitgeist may have moved on, leaving the story beached, out of date, too clearly the product of an earlier time. Or any combination of the foregoing.
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How did you land an agent? Traditional querying or something else..??
Lois McMaster Bujold Back in the day (mid-80s) there was no internet nor, from a small town in Ohio, other easily accessible source of information on agents, so I mainly asked my writer friends, when we corresponded or I met them at conventions, about theirs. My first such query sourced that way fell flat, politely rejected. I no longer remember the details, but I must have learned about the second through another writer acquaintance who used that agent. (I had at that point made my first novel sales to Baen unagented, and sold a scant few short stories.) There was some no-longer-remembered exchange of letters, but somehow we arranged to meet in NYC when I was there for the '89 Nebulas (at which Falling Free won for best novel) and shook hands at a breakfast meeting the next day.

Which was 30 years ago this spring, if I have my arithmetic right. It was a very lucky break for me -- I had only the vaguest idea what I was doing -- but, like most luck, preceded by a lot of work.

Ta, L.
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Do you still sign at Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis on occasion? We are planning to drive from Long Island to Dallas this fall & fiancee has angling for a detour through Wisconsin for the cheese. I am counter-angling to drive just a bit further to Minneapolis because... science fiction bookstore. If you do still sign and I could schedule that just right... shazam!
Lois McMaster Bujold I do sign at Hugo's occasionally, but my next gig is planned for midsummer when "The Flowers of Vashnoi" comes out from Subterranean Press. Hugo's always has signed books of mine in stock, however, which may be purchased in-store or mail order. Mail orders can sometimes be personalized on request, though it will make the order take a bit longer to fill.

Hugo's makes a great treasure trove to visit, and don't forget the adjoining Uncle Edgar's for mysteries. Meanwhile, if one's interests run to a wide range of comics, there is also Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis.

Ta, L.
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Will we see anything more in the Vorkosigan series? I'd love to find out how Cordelia and Aral's daughters come out and what life is like twenty or so years on from Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Also, having just re-read (tenth time) Cryoburn I thought I should tell you how very very much the ending touched me. I cry each time I read Gregor's remark. Aral is real to me as are the rest of the characters
Lois McMaster Bujold I am glad the series has worked so well for you, and over time at that.

No, I don't have anything further planned in that direction at this time.

Ta, L.
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Why no guns in Sharing Knife?
Lois McMaster Bujold They haven't been invented. Or not yet.

Widespread knowledge of the chemistry of fireworks is a necessary precursor, and not the only one. The population density is still relatively low. And guns wouldn't work on malices anyway.

To clarify another often-missed point, the world of The Sharing Knife is not a descendant of our own.

Ta, L.
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What actors would you fantasy-cast as your characters if someone were to make movies of your books? Ignoring current ages: Peter Dinklage seems obvious as Miles (I'd love to see him doing the manic parts). Robert Pattinson (pre-vampire!!) as Ivan. Cordelia: for some reason, Meryl Streep comes to mind.
Lois McMaster Bujold A few of my characters had some mild physical inspiration from actors over the years, although once they hit the page they quickly mutated into their unique selves. I haven't really been watching enough live-action media lately to keep up on the more recent menu of possibilities. I think my characters would want new actors and actresses to bring them to life on-screen.

That said, back in the day Aral had some somatic inspiration from Oliver Reed, Cordelia from Vanessa Redgrave, Galeni from Paul Darrow. I once saw a fellow in the early 80s who starred in a BBC-TV production of Richard III that I thought could almost do Miles, but his name escapes me... ah, thank you Internet, it was Ron Cook.

Ta, L.
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hey Lois McMaster Bujold i am not an author but i do have lots of creative and amazing ideas and concepts to write a book on so if anyone is in search of the same i can provide them with entire detailed plots for the story as well as i'll help them even afterwords in case they need ideas with the scenes but i am not getting such peoples so can you please suggest me the way to reach such people?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No.

To put it briefly: ideas are easy, writing is hard. Most writers want to work on their own ideas, not someone else's.

If you want to see your ideas on a page, you are far better off learning how to write yourself. (Among other things, that should teach you why your hopeful plan above won't work.)

An excellent place to start, with some of the most sensible writing advice on the web, is here: http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ She even has some posts scattered in there on this very topic, and why it never flies.

Ta, L.
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What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are quite a few posts earlier in this column, and in my interviews, that describe my writing processes. If you are really curious, you can scroll back. A bunch of interviews are handily collected here: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...

Ta, L.
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Many authors write material that is ultimately cut out of the finished product, either by the author herself or by an editor. Do you have any backlogs of text that did not make it to the published work that you deem readable by your fans? Or that you regret leaving out?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have very little in the way of scene-sized outtakes, because most of that editing happens at the rolling-outline stage, and doesn't make it past pencil-scratchings. When I was slogging through the middle of what became Diplomatic Immunity, I did write an experimental prologue from Guppy's point of view, but decided the book was thematically better served starting where it had. Which is around somewhere... ah.

http://www.dendarii.com/excerpts/prol...

Wow, that was a while back. (Spoilery if you've not read the book, btw.)

There were also iirc five chapters midway in Ivan's book that went in a different direction and ground to a dead halt, which I scrapped in favor of the final and better developments. (I was basically trying to shove Ivan into a Miles-like plot, which did not work either logically or psychologically.) That was probably my biggest post-composition cut. It's nothing I'd show or can even readily find at this point, but it wasn't altogether work wasted, as I made up a deal of material, including a first pass on Moira ghem Estif, that I recycled in various ways.

So, nothing to show and no regrets.

Ta, L.
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I was wondering if you had any characters, items, places, dialogues, etc. that you've taken out of any of your stories that I could use for a story idea that had? My idea is about an island where story pieces that are thrown out, given up on or abandoned end up. I've been asking authors if they have anything I could use because I want to put some truth in the idea. It's totally fine if you don't have anything. Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sorry, I don't have anything for you.

Upon reflection, I realize that everything I've started, I've finished. This is more parsimony than anything else, I suspect.

You can make up your own story fragments, you know. Which will be just as true as any others.

Ta, L.
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Just finished Knife Children. So loved it! Now I need to reread whole series. Was wondering if you had to pick a world to live in which of the ones you have written would you prefer?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Probably the Vorkosiverse. Pre-industrial-world medical care and life options are pretty dire, not to mention their more limited access to information.

In choosing, exactly where and when makes a difference. All war and plague zones are contraindicated, regardless of universe.

Ta, L.
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Did Penric end up telling Ikos's friends of his powers? Seems like they'd wonder about the suicidal fish...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Probably not; sailors have uneasy relations with sorcerers and their chaos demons. Not that they didn't wonder...

Ta, L.
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How do you pronounce Eugin (Vorpatril)? I thought you-jin but Gardner pronounces it oy-gin
Lois McMaster Bujold
I also pronounce it you-jin.

Ta, L.
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Someone else may well have asked this, in which case please forgive the repetition. Do you intend to write any more Penric novellas? I do so hope the answer's yes!
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's not ruled out. His possibilities are far from exhausted.

Ta, L.
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Not a question, but rather something you may enjoy - a New Yorker piece profiling a talent agent with some Miles-ey overtones: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/03/29/the-king-of-the-deal?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, this (1993, I see, accounting for its antique flavor) article seems to have nothing to do with me, Miles, my work, or my world literary or business. It's rather like reading about aliens, except aliens seem more accessible.

L.
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Did you know about https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/this-gross-creature-may-create-the-superfood-of-the-future when you wrote about Butter Bugs in a Civil Affair?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I wrote A Civil Campaign in 1998 (first published 1999); you do the math...

:-), L.

...Gosh, has it really been 20 years? I guess so.
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not a question, but I loved your book :) ?!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks?

...Which book?

L.
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how young are you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I suspect this is one of those recent spate of spam questions, but just in case it's not, my birth year is listed on my author profile.

L.

(The spam questions have been weird. Some are outright gibberish, some could be an ESL person struggling to express himself, none have anything specific to do with my works (something of a tip-off.) They don't usually seem to embed advertising links, though some are clearly attempted mass promotion of newbie amateur ebooks entirely unrelated to my genres. Anyone else have thoughts on how to deal with this clutter?

There are also a sprinkling of gibberish comments that turn up randomly under my book reviews. Are other reviewers getting these?)

L.
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I just found my account was hacked, so that might explain some of the garbage appearing randomly under reviews (assuming my account is not the only one to be hacked). Some of the other "questions" are patently there to get people to click on their profile names even if no links are embedded. Goodreads' security options are lacking - e.g. we don't have to approve "friends". And authors have no ability to approve Qs?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have the power to skip or flag peculiar Q&A entries. I should likely skip more of them, but years of ingraining from public schools -- answer every question you can on the test! -- is hard to overcome.

I do have to approve "friends", but as this is a public site for, well, publicity, I don't vet them. (For one thing, that would be much too large a tax on my time and attention.)

Ta, L.
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Your Vorkosigan series and the Harrington Saga and Douglas Adam's HHGG are three of my favorite "Space Operas" and I tend to reread each once a year. What "Space Opera" do you reread if any?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing at present. Well, except my own, to check galleys on reprints, but that's not done for fun. I do try to drop brief reviews of whatever I am reading that I finish here in my "My Books" section, but that's as much for my own benefit, to remember it all, as anything.

Ta, L.
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Being one of the first authors to write romance into science fiction, what are your thoughts to the direction SFR has taken?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am most certainly not one of the first to write romance into SF -- E. E. "Doc" Smith and Anne McCaffrey preceded me by decades, among many, many others.

SFR (Science Fiction Romance, for the uninitiated) has hived off subsequently into its own commercially viable subgrenre, and I haven't been keeping up with its developments.

I'm enough of an old SF hand that I feel that if one is going to make a romance central to an SF story, the new technology, science, and/or world-building should make a difference to how the old reproductive dance plays out. Not just drop a bog-standard romance down in front of an SFnal backdrop. But people write and read this stuff for many more varied reasons than I do, so that's more an observation of my own tastes than a god-forbid prescription to anyone else.

Ta, L.
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Hello, Lois, I've started to get to know your work. I really liked your books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you?

Ta, L.
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Lois, can I ask you what your favorite fantasy book is? How do you like Isaac Asimov?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Probably The Lord of the Rings and The Last Unicorn top my list for fantasy. It's been many decades since I read Asimov, but back in the day I liked the robot stories and mysteries best.

Ta, L.
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I've been listening -- again -- to the audiobook of "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance" and paying extra attention to Simon and Shiv's interaction. It occurred to me to wonder if Simon knew (from the Arquas) that the elevator to the bunker had been blown up and that was why he questioned the "marked clear" designation. Until the mycoborer, that was the only entrance, presumably. Or might that be one of your rare oops?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Simon questioned it because Simon questions everything; he's a naturally suspicious fellow. (Well, also by training and long experience. Rats, he smells them. At a great distance.) That ImpSec's records didn't match the facts-as-found could only be determined later; finding out why they didn't match will certainly be someone's job post-events.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois McMaster Bujold, First of all, in my household, my father regarded you as the best that SciFi had to offer and it was stories of Miles retold to me as an asthmatic child in the ER, for the umpteenth time impatiently breathing away through a nebuliser cursing myself and my asthma for millionth time, that place you upon so high a pedestal. Was Dubauer based upon a real life person?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Pre-nerve-disruptor Dubauer wasn't based on anyone in particular; though he barely had stage time to develop before unfortunate plot events happened to him. His behavior post-damage during the trek was inspired and informed by my experiences chasing one-year-old toddlers. It's an age when they are just getting into that suicidal-mania stage, pre-verbal and post-mobile, lasting the next couple of years that gives so many parents heart attacks.

Which also gave Aral and Cordelia a chance to subconsciously scope each other out as prospective parents.

I'm glad my work served you!

Ta, L.
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My best friend will be 40 soon. She is a great fan of Vorkosigan Saga and she let me discover it ;-) I search a great present for her birthday. Would it be possible to buy a dedicated volume of the saga? We are from Switzerland... Thanks and best regards!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, you can buy signed and personalized copies of my books from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis. They ship internationally.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...

Ta, L.
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Not a question, but a comment? In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, the engineer stated that the expressed water from the ImpSec sponge was shooting 25' straight out from the cliff before falling into the water. I see the book was published in 2012, as I checked just now. In 2014, a Red Cross briefing after the Oso Mudslide Disaster north of Seattle said that's what happened there, too -- a horizontal jet of water.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Cool! It's always nice to find my creative estimates supported by real-world evidence...

Ta, L.
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Thought you might be interested in the following journal special issue https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14678519 Ethics of Ectogenesis: The editors of Bioethics are pleased to announce a special issue on the Ethics of Ectogenesis (artificial wombs). Given that so many of your works deal with ethics, and you presaged / predicted artificial wombs, it might be right up your alley! Hope you enjoy?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I haven't had time to look at this yet, but other readers may also be interested.

Ta, L.
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Please be kind. In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, early on we are shown a typical day for Ivan. We are told that he goes through the mail and he identifies the various snakes mailed to his office. Some are dangerous, some are dead, some are really worms that were mistaken for snakes, etc. Until this point I don't recall hearing about Ivan studying herpetology. Was this a metaphor? The mail has threats to assess?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, it was a metaphor. (Or else the email would be much more exciting to open, but I don't think even Vorkosiverse technology is up to emailing live animals. Though that suggests a very different SF story...) Ivan is performing a typical secretarial or executive assistant's task of triaging the day's incoming demands and filtering out things his boss shouldn't waste his limited time upon.

Ta, L.
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I really appreciate how your male main characters are non-traditionally masculine. Penric is probably the best example of this. In Mira's Last Dance, he seems fairly comfortable as Mira. I was worried it was going to be transphobic, but it never was. Would Penric consider himself gender-neutral or gender-fluid in today's parlance?
Lois McMaster Bujold Pen would consider himself straight. So is 10/12ths of Desdemona. (Or 8/10ths, if one declines to speculate on the gender identities of the lioness and the mare.)

Balancing these competing views is one of Pen's many tasks in accommodating his demon.

Also playing in is Pen's deep medical education and experience. When one of your jobs is teaching anatomy to medical students through human and other dissection (a winter course, back in Martensbridge), you pretty much get over any kind of body-consciousness. Between the long medical careers of Amberein and Helvia, and his own shorter but extremely intense one, Pen has pretty much seen it all by age 29, and must sometimes remind himself that other people are shyer or more prudish. "Anyone with their skin still on looks dressed to me," as I believe he phrased it once.

Ta, L.
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Hi and greetings from Texas! May I ask, have you ever read the Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

Most of Freud has been rendered obsolete by advances in neurobiology, which is, y'know, actual science.

This, btw, is a typical spam-looking question. The two tip-offs are that there is nothing whatsoever in it about my work or me, and that the questioner is a tabula rasa. Should I just be skipping these, or do they entertain anyone?

Too early in the morning for this, L.
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Well I just joined. I liked your answer on Freud, and actually I had a valid reason for asking. It was and IS my life experience, that made me agree with your answer. Now how did analyze the blank slate?
Lois McMaster Bujold
When a query looks a bit odd, a check of the poster's page shows their stats. If they have more books than friends, I figure they are here on GR for the right reasons. Granted that's not a good proxy when a person has just joined.

I don't auger down any more than that, because I am not here to vet people. Or be responsible for them in any other way, by preference. (I have to overcome decades of parental and placation reflexes for that, a work in progress.)

Freud seems to be the psychology equivalent of the phlogiston theory: seemed logical in its day, spawned lingering metaphors, obsoleted by further data.

Ta, L.
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Hello, Lois! Tried to the best of my ability to search through the 724 questions which you have answered already, but.. got bored. So here are my thanks for your work (I am hard pressed to add an adjective here, "extraordinary", "life-changing" or "life-saving" all not quite what I mean) and my question: did you choose Grover Gardner for the audiobooks, or was it some sort of coincidence?Or did he choose you?Thank you
Lois McMaster Bujold
Grover was selected by Blackstone, ages ago.

It seems to have worked out well... :-)

Ta, L.

...Yeah, these Q&A columns could do with a search function. I can't even find stuff sometimes. I did, it seems, once help persuade tptb to make it possible to order them by newest, rather than the random shuffle they had previously.
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I just saw that the Sharing Knife universe is not, as I had always assumed, a (very) post-apocalyptic descendant of our own. Certain cultural details, like the birthday cake (complete with candles) as well a the plants and animals made it feel like it was closely related to our Earth. Do you see it as an alternative history version of Earth, and if so, when did the timelines split? Or has it always been its own place?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Sharing Knife (or the Wide Green World) has always been its own world, not descended from our own.

It is, however, a source-riff on Midwestern US in parallel, or contrast, to the many, many cod-Europe fantasies out there. If Tolkien can do it with England, and Pratchett with The Chalk, I don't see why my home should be excluded from the game. (Aragorn gets Eagles, Dag gets... turkey buzzards. :-)

Ta, L.
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My reading friends frequently have lively debates about the elements that create a literary world that feels as if it really exists. In my reading experience only ten per cent of the books I have read possessed those vivid qualities. As both a reader and writer of such books, what element(s) do you feel coalesce to create a living breathing world? So far our debates though long and loud have come to no conclusions.
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is too complex and individual a question to be answered in a paragraph (or possibly at all), so commenters are invited to chime in below.

But briefly, for myself as a reader, the writer/artist can sell me almost any kind of world-building if they have convinced me of the reality of the characters, and get me inside their heads for some sort of gripping interiority. (Granted, my foray into manga and anime has lowered the bar for world-building logic.)

As a writer, while I know readers will forgive or overlook much in a work that just delivers up the right emotional set-pieces, I don't want them to have to. (If a work doesn't deliver up the emotions, there is little point in reading it; one would be better off spending the same time reading non-fiction. Not that non-fiction isn't selected and edited to be a kind of fiction in its own right.) So the attention I spend on world-building is actually in support of my characters.

Ta, L.
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what kind of books do u do? this is my first time I would love to get a reponse back I like to read and im learning to write books can u help
Lois McMaster Bujold I am not a writing teacher, on the internet or anywhere else, so I can't help you with that part.

As for the other, a quick visit to Wikipedia should answer you --

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mc...

Ta, L.
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I was rereading the Penric books, and started wondering how the World of the 5 Gods would look in a modern or futuristic setting. Have you considering taking the series out of their medieval/Renaissance setting? Would Des be kicking around in the head of a space navy officer? (i'm rather enchanted by that idea, by the way)
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's indeed an interesting question, and one I have mulled from time to time, but I don't have anything pending or trending in that direction yet. There are still so many possibilities in the characters currently on my plate.

Science would presumably develop differently, and on a different timetable, with so many best-brains off in pursuit of theology and sorcery.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois If I may. In the URL "https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16094.Lois_McMaster_Bujold?utm_medium=email&utm_source=author_blog_post_digest" you advertise your Website as " http://www.dendarii.com/ " If we go in "Inspired - Merchandise, Filk, FanFic, FanArt, Book Covers." then in "SoftWear Toys & Tees" we come across: "http://www.softwear-tnt.com/"incomprehensible to me (and others) I bought more than a dec
Lois McMaster Bujold Question continued next panel...
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do not own or operate dendarii.com; Michael Bernardi does. He's here on Goodreads, so you should be able to find him for questions about the site. Note that he maintains it solely as a fannish labor of love, unpaid.

Softwear Toys 'n Tees was owned by a fan out of somewhere near Chicago, Steve Salaba, and again, I don't own or operate it, or know if he's still in business. You'll have to search, I guess. There was another convention dealer doing stuff for a while, Pegasus iirc, but I haven't heard from them in years.

Ta, L.
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Re-reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance for the 3rd or 4th time today. What would be a typical example of a venomous snake, a garden snake, and a dead snake that he had to sort for Admiral Desplains?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I suppose a dead snake would be some problem that should have been dealt with below this level, a garden snake would be ordinary Ops issues, and a venomous snake would be something with hidden political implications or connections, or some genuine time-critical emergency. (Actually, the later would bypass the herpetology triage altogether.)

Ta, L.
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Hi! I am a teacher for German as foreign language and wanted to use one of Paul de Becker's drawings. Am I allowed to use it in class and upload it on ISL Collective (a site, where language teachers upload their work sheets)? I'd like to write an e-mail and send the drawing as attachment. Is it possible? Otherwise there is no possibility of satisfactory answer. I am no member of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Er, I am not Paul de Becker, and in fact have no idea who he may be. Though that's the person you'd need to ask for certain permission. It does sound like academic fair use to me, but other posters with more experience in these matters may chime in below.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold No idea. Not my medium.

L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Twenty years of learning better. A good bit under Cordelia's Betan tutelage, but doubtless other life lessons and observations as well.

Some readers seem to process characters as going into stasis between moments on stage, stored in a prop box until needed, and get unduly confused when they grow and change between viewings as if they were real people with real, complex lives. (Some people do the same with their family members, so it isn't a phenomenon confined to fiction.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold It would depend on what age she was, and where. Cordelia at 15, 20, 30, 35, 50, 76, would all be a little or a lot different.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Re: question 2, very loyal supporters and considerable public discretion. Aral has kept much bigger secrets than this one. Re: question 1, you seem to have forgotten or not registered the wide swathe of scandal Aral blazed in his 20s, after which anything else must seem a mere bagatelle to his interested observers.

Ta, L.
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Hey.My teacher told me to find two horror books 50-70 pages.I can't find any. Can you help?
Lois McMaster Bujold
What you are talking about is a horror novella, of which there are many, classic and new. Most of the older classics (which I expect your teacher would prefer) are probably available free on-line. Perhaps other readers could chime in with some of their faves below.

L.
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In Komarr, there is a scene where Miles pursuades Nikki to leave the bathroom by telling him that he once employed a ten-year-old girl. Was this covered in one of the earlier books? I am wracking my brain and can't seem to remember it, familiar as it sounds.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, that's a throw-away line, on the order of the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant. (A classic example from the Sherlock Holmes stories.) Not every Dendarii assignment/escapade was covered in the stories, as they ran over some ten years.

Ta, L.
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Hello! I love all of your books, but The Sharing Knife series is my favorite. I first read it while my partner and I were coming out and figuring out dealing with families, and it really helped me during that time. We are planning to make things legal soon, and I'd really like to use the Lakewalker wedding vow from Beguilement in our ceremony and possibly on our announcements. Would that be ok, if we attribute it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, go ahead; attribution not required in this context, unless you want.

And congratulations!

bests, Lois.
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Ms. Bujold -- Thought you might be amused to see this article on real-life butterbugs; the whole pitch (converting organic waste to useful products, etc.) sounds awfully familiar. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/03/maggots-could-revolutionize-global-food-supply-heres-how/?utm_term=.4667224429bf Now all we need is an aesthetics consultant . . .
Lois McMaster Bujold
Life imitates art imitates life...

L.
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Will there be more Vorkosigan stories wether Miles his cousin or Mother or even go back to his Father??????
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing new in that direction is planned at this time. (Nothing is ruled out, though the probabilities trend to the negative.)

Ta, L.
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how long did it take for you to get the resources and connections to be well known name in the reading world ?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not quite sure how to parse this question. Skipping over my youthful efforts and starting the count in late 1982, I wrote 3 novels in 3 years, sold them all to Baen in late 1985, and tried to produce a book a year thereafter. Lather, rinse, repeat for thirty years, and here I am. Submitting my 4th novel Falling Free to Analog for serialization probably helped my early visibility, as well as winning my first Nebula with it.

"Resources" and "connections" are pointless without "productivity". Cart, horse...

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms. Bujold, Hope you don't mind information rather than a question? I thought you might enjoy this Washington Post article, as what is happening with maggots is remarkably similar to your Butter Bugs idea in the Vorkosigan Saga: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/03/maggots-could-revolutionize-global-food-supply-heres-how/ Sincerely, Brad Berens
Lois McMaster Bujold Shared...

L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't think I've talked about this much, as it is a story element I had no desire to commit to one way or another. (Although if there is anything, it would be in interviews from around when the books were first published -- https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au... ) Gods might have been real, and left or were excluded; gods might have always been as mythological as our own. The two things certainly known is that some people have an extrasensory perception and magical manipulative abilities, and no one believes the gods are around now. There should be folk stories about this, but I did not have occasion in the books to recount (invent) any.

Ta, L.
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I think from the time stamp, you answered my question at about 2:30 in the morning. Are you a night owl?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep. And an insomniac.

L.
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Pardon if this has been asked before - I loaded about 300 of the Asks here and didn't see it, so... I've been reading through some older stuff (Cordelia's Honor at the mo) & I keep seeing the word "bemused" used as a synonym for "amused", rather than "confused/bewildered". Is this a deliberate subversion (ie you're trying to get that definition more widely used), or is it an error? Loving everything so far :)
Lois McMaster Bujold No error. See definitions 2 and 3 ferex here:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bem...

Ta, L.
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As former fellow____________( Columbusite, Columbuser, Columbusonian, etc, etc), I feel like I've seen some interesting and familiar settings in your work, particularly in The Sharing Knife. In the Vorkosigan Saga, I always picture Impsec headquarters as looking a bit like the nihilistic Ohio Historical Society in Columbus. A) Are you familiar with this building? B) If so, am getting it right?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, the landscapes of The Sharing Knife are indeed drawn from my Ohio childhood (now mostly paved.) I don't offhand know the building, though. There's a lot of so-called Brutalist (if I'm getting the name right) architecture around, though, as 20th C. architects did regrettable things with concrete.

Ta, L.
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Wait, so is Darthaca basically France?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I use real places much the way working artists use reference photos when arranging their compositions; not because I am trying to draw a portrait, but as a quick way to get proportions and perspectives right for a coming overlay pursuing quite another purpose.

Readers who try to read the result as portraiture -- either as historical fiction with the serial numbers filed off, or as historical critique -- are using inappropriate viewing protocols for this style of composition. The ones who attempt to draw mistakenly exact one-to-one correspondences between such fiction and history, and then try to tell the writer they got it wrong, are... unstoppable, apparently.

Not accusing you of this, btw. But it does come up, if one makes the mistake of revealing how sausages are made.

Ta, L.
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Woohoo, I found the inspiration for Ekaterin's Glorious Bugs: https://www.livescience.com/15337-creepy-crawlies-gallery-cutest-bugs.html - think she'd like to swipe some of these ideas?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This link appears broken...

(But yes, the insect world is full of wonders.)

L.
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I just finished The Orphans of Raspay. It was absolutely delightful! Thank you for this wonderful gift of another Penric adventure. Will it be coming out as an audiobook?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't have news re: an audio edition yet, though it will certainly be offered. I am pleased to report Subterranean Press has offered for a limited hardcover like the others, though. They still have to chew through "The Flowers of Vashnoi" and "Knife Children" first, though, so that will likely be about a year.

Ta, L.
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Hello, I hope my question isn't offensive. But I was talking to another person who also read your books (I don't think she counts as a fan), and she complained that Miles thought about sex too much -- she was referring to the Borders of Infinity scene, I think. Do you think she's just underestimating how much the average guy thinks about it, since they supposedly think about it every few seconds?
Lois McMaster Bujold
While I doubt that the "every few seconds" factoid is correct -- men vary about sex quite as much as women do, if not necessarily in the same proportions (and over time as well as by individuals) -- I do think expecting book-characters to be comfortably asexual, or at least anything about their sexual lives well-hidden off-stage, is less likely to be found in modern writing than in the older, more censored sort that she might prefer.

As for how authentically guy-like Miles is, guy readers will have to speak to that.

Ta, L.
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How do you intend Foixs' name to be pronounced?
Lois McMaster Bujold Foy, rhymes with Roy.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, my wife and I were listening to A Civil Campaign again and just wanted to thank you (and Grover) for giving us an additional family to care about for these 2+ decades. In the mid-90's I mailed my collection of Miles books to my not-yet wife to cheer her up and within a year, we were married. She says introducing her to the VorKosigan's sealed the deal. Thanks so very much. Sorry this isn't a ? :)
Lois McMaster Bujold Maybe not a question, but a cheery note nonetheless.

You are both welcome!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mine will be one-at-a-time projects from here on out, not that they weren't always, so no promises. Happily, there are lots of other good writers out there to keep you occupied while you wait.

Commenters might chime in below -- "If you like Bujold, you might like..." I'll toss in Megan Whalen Turner to prime the pump.

Ta. L.
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I saw a question asking you for the meaning of Miles' line "I am the man who owns Vorkosigan Vashnoi" but I had to sign off before I could read your answer, and now I can't find that question in Goodreads - no frelling search function! I have my own ideas what that line means to Miles, but I would love to know what you meant by it? My apologies for repeating a question that has already been answered!
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, this GR Q&A function is in dire need of a search function. I don't think whoever set it up imagined answered questions over time running into the many hundreds. When they started out, the reader could not even order questions by newest-first, but was just presented with a random mix. Maybe if many, many people requested a Q&A search function of the GR site wranglers, one might be installed?

To answer your question, Miles was at that moment having his epiphany about his true identity through that metaphor of his Barrayaran stubborness refusing to give up his underlying identity as a Barrayaran and a Vorkosigan, despite how Naismith's glittering galactic possibilities tried to seduce him. Not just the echo of his ancestors' war-tenacity, but an echo of his future responsibilities to his District and redeeming the poisoned land.

Ta, L.
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I saw a question below about a book about Miles' children - I second the notion. I'd love to read it. But have you considered "going back in time" and writing another book about a younger Miles? Such as his time as an Imperial Auditor? I love your books but Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen seemed so final.
Lois McMaster Bujold Having just finished a 43k-word near-half-novel last week (and some trailing editing chores, plus writing a 2,000 word introduction for the upcoming first Baen Penric collection), I am due some slacking off right now. I have no idea what project I will tackle next -- or rather, I have a few ideas lying around breathing shallowly, but none have yet gone live -- but the chances of anything like this seem remote at present.

Ta, L.
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I just finished Orphans of Raspay. Thank you as always. But it sparked an odd thought. It seems like Penric's life is going to overlap that of the Golden General and Fonsa, far away though they may be. Like when I realized that if Julius Cesar died in 44 BC, there must have been people alive at the same time as both he and Jesus, a few could even conceivably have met both of them (Magi). Odd, yes?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not odd, but I am not sure where Pen's stories, or his god, are going to take him. A fair part of his world has not even been made up yet, since no stories or characters have traveled through them to bring them into existence. He represents a chance, though not a requirement, for something fresh.

Ta, L.
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I feel as if somewhere I've seen a map of the World of the Five Gods, and not the one in The Orphans of Raspay (which didn't include every place mentioned in Orphans). Am I right? I looked in all my kindle versions of Chalion, etc. with no luck. I'm a map lover, and like to be oriented!
Lois McMaster Bujold There were a couple of maps of the Ibran peninsula, back when, which didn't make it into the first hardcover but did into later editions. The fan-made Chalion wiki reproduces and extends it -- see under Places at:

https://chalion.fandom.com/wiki/The_C...

I believe the wiki creator is looking for more help in bringing the site to life, btw.

Ta, L.
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Thanks for the answer, and so quick! Unfortunately, I'm still confused -- is the Peninsula to the east or the west of the map in Orphans? As I look at the island chain, it looks as if it should be to the west, but as I read the book and look at the maps on the site, I feel as if it is to the east. Again, thanks. I just like to be oriented!
Lois McMaster Bujold The Ibran peninsula is ~800 - ~1000 miles east of the Carpagamon islands and the coast of Cedonia.

Remember, north is toward the equator, south is toward the nearest pole. Also recall there are two large peninsulas in play, the Ibran to the east and the Cedonian to the west.

Ta, L.
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2 years ago you answered the question "Will you write another Vorkosigan Saga novel?" with "I can't say. Nothing is planned at this time." Well it is 2 (nearly 3) years later any update? Short story? Thanks
Lois McMaster Bujold No change in the answer, apart from "The Flowers of Vashnoi" novella.

Ta, L.
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I've been re reading your works from Shards and I am looking forward to whatever you do to the Vorkosigan clan next. Thankyou for many happy hours of reading. No question per se?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying the work, then.

Ta, L.
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Did any of the Vorkosigans participate in Gregor's second ceremony on Komarr?
Lois McMaster Bujold A good question to which I've never worked out the answer, since, among other things, I've never made up what marriage ceremonies on Komarr consist of. (Though they would include a lot of behind-the-scenes contractual maneuvering, if the principals were from high oligarchical families.) It is entirely possible that Aral, at least, stayed home; Cordelia and/or Miles might have attended; the Komarran Viceroy Imperial Councillor might have stood in for Barrayar.

Ta, L.
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Any chance of a collected Pen book? Something with all of the stories so far in a single bound edition, similar to the Flowers of Vashnoi?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, there will be two 3-novella collections upcoming next year from Baen. The first, due out in January in hardcover, will be titled "Penric's Progress". The second, slated for later in the year, will be titled "Penric's Travels". I'll be making a proper blog post about them later on, when this rather busy summer's other publishing activities have been worked through.

Trade and/or mass market paperback editions will presumably follow from Baen after the usual intervals.

Ta, L.
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After an afternoon digging up weeds in the garden, I wished for a touch of sorcerous chaos to zap them into dust. I think Pen and Des might make, erm, killer gardeners. Or might that create a too-well-ordered garden?
Lois McMaster Bujold Much the same philosophical question Pen faced when slaying fleas in his bed. More order for the bed, great disorder for the fleas... There is a name for that sort of moral accounting, which escapes me just at the moment. But any sufficiently adept 5GU sorcerer would grow adept at it.

Ta, L.
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Heading to Dublin for WorldCon 2019 tomorrow with questions all planned for your kaffeeklatsch, only to discover you won't be there! So glad to see there's an alternative that you're active on, so I can ask my questions here instead. Since I'm character-limited, I'll split them into multiples. First question: do you have a page where you publish your con schedule, or does one have to dig through your blog?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am mostly retired from the convention circuit these days, so any rare travel and appearance announcements will be posted on my blog. (Such as the recent very local booksigning at Uncle Hugo's.)

Ta, L.
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Given that you already had books called "Barrayar" and "Komarr" (and even "Cetaganda"), why didn't you call "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" "Sergyar"? Or are you saving it for some future volume?
Lois McMaster Bujold I wasn't going to name anything else after that schmuck Prince Serg. If Cordelia'd had her way, she'd have renamed the planet; that may yet happen. I can see Gregor doing so posthumously-to-her -- Cordeliyar? Aralyar? Alas that a place name used so often should be short and pronounceable.

Place-name titles tend to happen when I can't come up with something better, so "Sergyar" is definitely not being saved for anything.

Ta, L.
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Given that the first article of the Betan constitution is "access to information shall not be abridged", how do the Betans always manage to stay one step ahead in R&D, especially in weapons systems? Is it just that Betan engineers and scientists are so far ahead in competence and understanding that the rest of the galaxy has to scramble to keep up?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, Betan boffins are that far ahead (not least because of free flow of information among each other), but yes, even Betans manage to keep military secrets for a while. If a new system goes public you can be sure there's a better one now developing in the wings.

Ta, L.
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I have to say - I'm jealous of a religion that has a Bastard in it, and a guaranteed miracle at the end of your life (that everyone can see). Did you create the religion in the Chalion books from whole cloth, or did you model it after an existing religion or religions?
Lois McMaster Bujold A combination. The social aspects of religion, how humans use religion to organize themselves to carry out various social functions, are pulled from a lifetime of observation and reading; the mystical likewise from readings across several real-world religions. The underlying theo... call it theography, I made up myself, and is very contrary to most real-world religions.

The gods of Chalion are not, and are generally understood not to be creator-gods, but evolved and evolving from matter that came first. They are not deities people can give bribes to in the form of sacrifices for material-world favors, or to punish people one does not like either before or after death, both early motivations for religious beliefs. (Although I'm sure some people, being people, try anyway.) They are however about a non-material afterlife, although not one that is easy to understand or describe. "Union with god" is meant rather literally, here.

Ta, L.
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Cordaral? Or, if the next generation does something great for the planet - Aurelia?
Lois McMaster Bujold I imagine the planet is stuck with "Sergyar", but we can hope for something more euphonious.

Ta, L.
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I am desperately in love with Penric and Desdemona. How many of these novellas are you planning to write? (I hope it is a thousand.)
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you are enjoying them!

One of my notions for these e-novellas was that they should be ala carte, open-ended, not bolted to any particular series template. So I don't exactly have plans, more like possibilities. Penric has that invaluable character trait of being good for several different kinds of tales, so I shouldn't have to repeat myself any time soon. (Although one of the interesting things an writer can do in a series is revisit themes for a different slice on them, which I don't rule out.)

Ta, L.
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Here’s a possible 5G scenario: a major political figure contracts a demon, which ascends and instead of physical chaos being generated it causes political chaos, creating unsound policies, alienating allies, and screwing up the economy. Much more widespread damage than setting fires and souring beer, yes? Nah, too much like real life...
Lois McMaster Bujold
This speculation perhaps belongs in a fan discussion forum, not Author Q&A.

Ta, L.
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I just got caught up listening to the last three hours of the audiobook "The Warrior's Apprentice" after the bedtime I was aiming for. Shame on you for making it so riveting. Seriously though, after Shards of Honour (Barrayar was unavailable, so I'm still waiting for it), it was a fantastic ... listen, I suppose (seeing as I didn't technically read it). My question requires a question mark. (?) Thank you :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you have found and are enjoying my work! (This sounds like a recent discovery -- good.) The audiobooks really seem to be getting around.

Ta, L.
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Can you write a sequel?
Lois McMaster Bujold Er, to what?

Though I would point out, all series works are "sequels" by definition. So it would be more rare, unusual, and fresh for me to write something that wasn't.

Ta, L.
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Hi, I am a book author and I would like to ask you if you can explain how goodreads works? thank you
Lois McMaster Bujold No, not really. Go to your Author Dashboard and check out the tutorial -- https://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to -- and then maybe try some discussion groups. Also, just explore, poke around and look at stuff, maybe starting with the GR homepage.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold No, I'd not seen it before, and don't know anything about its provenance or history. It wasn't used on any of my published works that I know of.

Ta, L.
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How do you write an ending ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't teach writing, not even over the internet. A good source for level-headed writing tips is http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/ or Pat's ebook Wrede on Writing. Here is a quick link to a dozen of her posts on just that topic: https://www.pcwrede.com/?s=endings

That said, a lot more attention in writing advice seems to be devoted to beginnings. My own stubborn tendency to finish almost everything I start has resulted in me writing almost as many endings as beginnings, so the practice effect has had a chance to cut in.

Your question as written also brings up the question, "Ending to what?", since each story's needs in that department will be a little or a lot different from every other, depending on what has gone before. See: Pat's links.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. I recently read a few books of other authors, and as good as they were, I didn't relate to their characters as much as I do with yours. Do you have any kind of technique to help you make your characters life-like?
Lois McMaster Bujold It may be too global to be dubbed a "technique", since I don't think it's detachable from my whole writing process. For the viewpoint characters, it certainly involves mentally walking into their skins and bones, wrapping their lives and worlds around me, and looking out through their eyes as best as I can. For the non-viewpoint-characters, I suppose it has something to do with recognizing each is an independent actor in their own life, a kind of lite version of the foregoing. A form of virtual literary method acting, perhaps.

Pat, as always, has more wide-ranging things to say. https://www.pcwrede.com/complicated-s... ferex. A search on "characters" or "characterization" over there should produce more.

Ta, L.
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But wouldn't the Vor have their own accent, like the Brits with their Queen's English?
Lois McMaster Bujold They have several, depending on local origins.

(I leave the tutorial on the vast multiplicity of British accents to someone else.)

Ta, L.
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what is the meaning of synapses?
Lois McMaster Bujold
https://www.dictionary.com/

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime...

L
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In his introduction to the first collection of his work (1950), Will F. Jenkins (Murray Leinster) describes the musings and speculations which led to each story. As regards one he says "[It] comes out on paper and I have more fun writing it than anybody will ever have reading it." May I hope that you feel similarly? Your work has given so much enjoyment to so many, including me, it would only seem just!
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, if I'm not having any fun writing something, I can't write it at all. (Nor, at this stage of my life, have I any need to.) So anything that appears you may assume I wanted to do.

(That said, no such extended project is ever fun all the time, but the balance, at least, needs to be intrinsically rewarding.)

Ta, L.
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Do you have an expected finalization date for the audiobook version of the the latest Penric novella? thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. The first I usually hear is when it pops up on the downpour.com website. (It's not there yet as of 9/8/19.) I would expect a minimum production time of 4 months from the time we signed the contract (August), maybe six, so... midwinter...?

Ta, L.
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Thank you for The Orphans of Raspay. It gave us a different side of Penric, and as always it's intriguing. Will there be more? And will the next one give us more of Nikys? Much though I enjoyed Orphans, I found that I missed her.
Lois McMaster Bujold As usual, I have no idea what I might write next (nor, being semi-retired, when.) Nothing is promised, nothing is ruled out. Though right now I'm due for a long random-input-break.

Glad you liked Nikys! I did, too. (And so, of course, did Pen & Des.) Though I expect her adventures for the next few years are going to be domestic, very absorbing to the principals but not so much to fantasy readers.

Ta, L.
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do you have any other books that you have made?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Here's one list:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...

Here's another:
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

There's always Wikipedia, you know...

L.
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Hi, Lois, thanks for your habitual championing of Patricia Wrede's blog, it was through you that I discovered the veritable goldmine of writing info. It took several weeks but I started at the oldest post and made my way pretty much through all (hundreds) of her posts. I felt like I read a voluminous novel on writing technique but I feel like I've learned an unquantifiable number of things. She's a brilliant didact. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold Absolutely. (She's also been one of my first readers since my very first professional story, to my great benefit.)

For those coming in late, that's http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Ta, L.
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Lois, I noticed in reading Chalion/Paladins that out of all modern fantasy 'greats', your writing in the medieval 'idiom' is the most authentic in terms of colloquialism / style of language / manner of speaking, syntax, turns of phrase. Many authors write very 'modern' medieval prose. How/where do you learn this authentic manner of accurate syntax/dialogue/prose? Reading a lot of historical fiction, or? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold General and historical reading, certainly. But Shakespeare, mainly, I think. I used to belong to a play-reading group back in the 90s, and we went through a lot of his plays. The cadences worm into your brain.

I also pay attention to what turns of phrase or metaphors don't belong, perhaps because that technology or theory does not exist in the world of my tale. Though the absence of some literary toe-stub tends not to be noticed. I can't be too strict about it, though, because so many words have become common coin. The 5GU or the world of the Sharing Knife never had the theory of the four humours, for example, but "sanguine" or "melancholy" are still useful words.

Ta, L.
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I really enjoy listening to the audiobooks, especially the novellas and I have kinda of fallen in love with Grover Gardner's voice. He is really good at expressing the humor and sarcasm that I love in your writing. Is there hope that he would narrate a new audiobook version of the Curse of Chalion or none whatsoever ? (kinda of hopping to suggest the idea if it's not already there ^^)
Lois McMaster Bujold
That's a question you'd have to ask Blackstone Audiobooks. I wouldn't think so, however, since they already have a working edition. About the only time one gets new narrators is if one switches publishers, not in my plans. Blackstone has been pretty good to me for quite a while.

Ta, L.

Ta, L.
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Lois, there are many avenues for us to purchase your books. What is the best one for us to use in order to support you? I read somewhere that buying ebooks from the publisher's website generates the most revenue for the author. Is this true? What do you recommend?
Lois McMaster Bujold Any new-book sale is a good one, including audio downloads and publishers' websites. Whatever is most convenient to the reader is fine. That said, my self-pubbed ebooks on Kindle, Nook, and iBooks give the most, and most immediate, %$ pass-through to me.

Ta, L.
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If you set up a Patreon to support your future writing, especially if you will work on another Ista dy Chalion story ;) I will be a monthly contributor. Is that an option you have considered? Or Kickstarter sorts of things?
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't need one; my income stream and retirement savings are sufficient to support me. My present preference is to finish any work before trotting it out in public anywhere, in any publication form. To the greatest extent possible, my goal is to own my own time.

Ta, L.
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Dear Misses McMaster Bujold, Years ago, I read with great pleasure the Vorkosigan series. I re-read them loud for my wife (she loves that). The pleasure has been the same. And then, I read the "Chalion" books and, again, although I never liked fantasy, I loved them. I sincerely want to thank you for all this good you've done to us. THANK YOU !! (And neglect this sentence, this web-site demands a question mark ?)
Lois McMaster Bujold You and your wife are both most welcome.

bests, Lois.

(For general information, the surname is actually Bujold, so books should be filed under "B". I'm not sure this always happens. Years ago, when I was tracking down the Judge Dee mysteries of Robert Van Gulik, some libraries had them under "V", some under "G", and some, both...)
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For the collected novella versions of Penric, do they include the original covers? Having seen a couple of Dan Dos Santos’s amazing covers, now I want them. But I am not an ebook guy, and missed all the previous editions. I have been waiting for them to come out in relatively affordable collected editions as Mass market pb or Trade pb.
Lois McMaster Bujold Each publisher buys their own covers from the artists. So there won't be any swapping around of art on the assorted editions in this case, as, from Subterranean to Baen. (Blackstone Audiobooks sometimes rebuys cover art for their editions, though, if sometimes not.)

I would expect Baen would use the same art on their ensuing paperback editions as on their hardcovers coming out in 2020.

Ta, L.
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Lois, what is your personal favorite cover of all your books' covers, and why? Maybe you might demur on the question out of fear of inadvertently disparaging some artist or another, but it doesn't have to be the cover with the best art per se, but simply your own personal favorite for what might be a sentimental or personal reason?
Lois McMaster Bujold Including translations, I've had probably hundreds of covers over the years. A large selection may be seen here:

https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Sp...

And some older ones here:

http://www.dendarii.co.uk/Covers/

So the question is probably harder to answer than you'd think.

Among the early Baen covers, the original cover for Memory stood out, possibly because I'm partial to blue. Paladin of Souls was perhaps the best from HarperCollins. The upcoming one for the Subterranean edition of "Knife Children", which no one has yet seen, is an unusually fine character portrayal. The Japanese covers have their own style, well worth taking a look at. And so on; see links above.

Ta, L.
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How about a self publishing house?
Lois McMaster Bujold Er, what about a self-publishing house? You will have to rephrase and contextualize your question for me to get what you are asking me, here.

L.
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I just read this in my local paper and I wondered what your thoughts were: "Opinion: Publishers are blocking your access to e-books at local libraries?" https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2019/10/opinion-publishers-are-blocking-your-access-to-e-books-at-local-libraries.html
Lois McMaster Bujold This is an interesting problem that is part of the technological changes of our times. In the old paper-only world, book sales to libraries were self-limiting -- after a certain amount of use, books wore out, and needed to be replaced or discarded. They were not available in unlimited quantities free forever to compete with actual book sales, upon which not only publishers but authors live.

Attempts to fit ebooks into this old economic model have been awkward. One mode is to limit the number of checkouts per purchase to something approximating the average life of a paper book. Another, mentioned in the article, is to up the price to the libraries to partially compensate. One I would actually favor, which I understand is used in some other countries, is to charge the library some small sum per checkout. Overhauling the multitude of scattered and independent library systems to e-report same to the multitude of publishing entities is obviously do-able, but difficult; some central money clearing-house might need to be devised (and paid for, siphoning off yet more between reader/purchaser and author, sigh.) Amazon manages somehow, but they have a better budget and are under a single roof.

I am, increasingly, an ebook user from my local library, as my eyes don't play well with print on paper anymore. (My tablet turns every ebook into an instant large-print book.) So I find myself on both sides of the debate, wanting more to be available to me as a reader, and wanting to actually be, y'know, paid for my work as a writer. The current system, or rather, mess of competing systems, isn't really satisfactory for anyone.

Ta, L.
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Hello; Do authors usually get a percentage of the profit after costs for the sales of the book? If they do, how does that work with e-books? The cost is much lower to produce and no shipping costs so when that is factored out, so the profit starts coming sooner doesn't it?
Lois McMaster Bujold The answer varies with the type of book and publisher and the terms of the individual contracts. Typically, the author will be due royalties, i.e., a percent of the cover price of each book sold retail, in the neighborhood of anything from 2% (in the more abusive practices of some romance and academic publishers) to 6-8-10% per paperback sale, to 15% for hardcovers after a certain sales break-point. You can do the arithmetic, but that translates to a range between $.48 for an $8 paperback to $3.75 for a $25 hardcover of the purchaser's money going to the author. (As one can see, a writer needs to sell a pile of paperbacks to make a living.)

(As a side note, the rest does not all go to the publishers, who sell books to vendors at discounts of up to 50%. The difference between wholesale and retail is what the bookstores live on. The waste in the system would take a whole 'nother essay, but look up "remainders.")

An advance is money paid up front to the writer as a debt against future royalties. The author's share when the book is finally put on sale goes first to paying back the advance, at which point the book is said to have "earned out" and twice-yearly-accounted royalties start flowing to the writer. There is a lot of mythology surrounding the size of advances, but I think of it as money earned by my future self being paid to my current self. The publishers assume some risk in this regard, since they have to eat the difference if the advance does not earn out -- it is non-returnable.

Ebooks are even more wildly varied. It is important to note that entities such as iBooks, Amazon, and B&N are vendors, not publishers. Per unit sale, Amazon ferex keeps 30% of sales priced over a certain break point -- I don't remember offhand if it was $1.99 or $2.99 -- passing 70% through to the author or publisher, and keeps 65% for sales under the break point, passing 35% through to the originator. They pay monthly. If a book is indie published, this goes directly to the writer, after an initial 3-month delay.

If an ebook is published through one's paper publisher, the publisher passes 25% - 50% of their e-receipts through to the author as royalty, so the author gets 50% of 70% = 35% of each ebook sale, accounted quarterly or half-yearly. The publisher potentially does a hella lot of work for the writer and their book to earn this, so most writers I know regard the 50% split as fair.

Terms for ebooks sold directly through publishers' websites or other venues will vary with the publisher.

Ta, L.

(The other crucial factor for non-indie writers that has changed with the arrival of ebooks is contractual term-of-license, but that, too, would take another essay.)
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Hi! I would like to ask how you get a publisher to publish your book? Do you call? Text? Email? Or walk up to their door?
Lois McMaster Bujold First, you have to write and finish a good book.

Next, in this day of the internet, go to the publisher's website appropriate to your work and look for their particular submission guidelines and directions. Follow same. Prepare to wait a long time.

There are lots of writers' groups and other help online these days. I can't say much about them because I am not plugged into them myself; commenters below may have some more current tips. But a good place to start for level-headed advice is http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Begin at the beginning, read all the posts, and then, if any question is still unanswered, you can float it. (Do read first, so you won't be asking a question that's been answered eight times already.)

That should keep you busy for a while...

Ta, L.
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Are you familiar with this news about researchers discovering "cockroach milk" (term used loosely) as a potential "superfood"? Link: https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/this-gross-creature-may-create-the-superfood-of-the-future? Reminded me of bug butter from the Vorkosigan Saga!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, that's been mentioned several times below in this column, if that's the right name for this Q&A feature, in the wake of whatever pop sci article that's making the rounds in a given month. In any case, it's good that researchers are thinking outside the box...

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not a clue, sorry. Someone in the comments section below may have a suggestion of where to go for such help; I know there are sites devoted to such readerly puzzles out there.

Ta, L.
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if you could go into any book what would it be?
Lois McMaster Bujold But if I stay in this world, I can go into every book...

(Apart from practical limitations such as my eye endurance and expected lifetime.)

L.
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how did you start read a book? How many book are you read in the year. I really love read a books but these days I dont want read a book. Can you give me any advice? and lastly whats is your favourite book
Lois McMaster Bujold I started boringly, waiting to be taught how to read in first grade. About second grade, I discovered I was allowed to read any book in the school library, not just the thin picture books laid out for my class during library period, and my reading level shot up.

The number of books I read in a year has varied wildly over the course of my life; lots back in my school days and my early working years, less once kids and my career arrived. Lately my reading time is limited by annoying eye issues, hence my recent turn to manga, ebooks, anime, and Great Courses DVDs. You can see the YA and manga I've reviewed (which is not all I've read, nor the anime I've consumed) on my My Books section -- https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I'm not sure what your reading level is in English, nor what kind of access you have to them where you are, though if you have access to Amazon, it's lots. Readers in the comments section might chime in with their favorite YA. (Probably not the depressing ones, if the OP is trying to boot up a desire to read more.) Patricia C. Wrede's books are marketed as YA, and are a lot of fun. You might try her 4-book series The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. T. Kingfisher (who writes kids' books as Ursula Vernon) is also fun.

I don't think I have a favorite book -- it's varied over the years. Much-reread books/authors in the past have included Tolkien and Georgette Heyer, though I'm mainly moving on to other explorations now.

Ta, L.
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As a lover of all of your books, I also read most of the books that you recommend as well (and like them very much). I am wondering if you have read these books which I treasure: Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, and the Master and Commander series by Patrick O’Brian? The first is a complex fantasy; the second may be well outside your area of interest as it concerns the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars .
Lois McMaster Bujold I read the first O'Brian; possibly I did not get far enough into the series to collect the rewards of character development. I read the Hornblower books in my youth. I've heard of but not read the Helprin. (My reading is way down these days due to eye issues, but I'm finding ways around.)

Ta, L.
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Will the forthcoming Penric's Progress form Baen contain any new content? Forward? Afterward?
Lois McMaster Bujold It will have an about-two-thousand word intro from me, yes. (Some of which consists of me saying, "Go read the book first, then come back!" Possibly I should have just made it an afterword...)

Ta, L.
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Dear author, Do you know if anybody ever meets up in the Twin Cities to do a little Mirror Dancing? Sincerely, John M
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not that I know of.

L.
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I'm interested that many of your characters in one book may turn up as the main character in another book. (Ivan Vorpatril, Ista, Mark Vorkosign). Some do not. (Aral, Kareen Koudelka.) How do you decide that "Ista needs a book", but Aral doesn't?
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Decide" makes it sound like a more conscious process than it is. Imaginative streams of daydreams of bits about any or all of the characters can run through my head, if my head is in that mode. (Most of which aren't useful or consistent, cutting-room floor stuff.) One set may have more psychological resonance for me, will be more interesting. I'll start to think more about it, and an accretion of thoughts may eventually hit some critical mass that would promise to support an actual writable story. I may start making penciled notes at that stage, but at least half of those few also get discarded in favor of something I eventually like better.

Ta, L.
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Not a ? But a HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish. Congrats on another trip around the sun. Hope the next one is healthful & safe & fun. I'm not sure you can know how much you've enriched my life & provided comfort with your writing. Thanks. Most sincerely, J.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you, and you are welcome!

Ta, L.
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Have you seen the film "Russian Ark"? It's a 90 minute long film that was shot in a single take. The camera wanders the halls of the Hermitage while encountering the ghosts of Catherine II and the Romanov girls. It finishes up with a re-creation of the last Russian state ball before the declaration of WWI. That major scene included thousands of extras. It made a great stand-in for Barrayar. Happy natal day!
Lois McMaster Bujold Haven't seen it, but it does sound fascinating.

Thanks for the good wishes, Lois.
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How did you first become published?
Lois McMaster Bujold This question is answered at length in Sidelines: Talks and Essays https://www.amazon.com/Sidelines-Essa... (also on Nook and iBooks), in an essay titled "My First Novel". I see I wrote it in 1990, which means I was remembering events way better than I would if I attempted to retype it all out today, nearly 3 decades later.

Ta, L.

...Goodness, that edition might could use a little tidying. I haven't looked at it for ages. The context notes seem to fall at the ends of prior essays, not at the start of the next as they should. Well, we'll see how bored I get this winter.
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Hello: My name is Carol Smith. I am a mother and grandmother of eight children. The title of your book "The Orphans of Raspay" has my attention. I have not read the synopsis. What can you tell me about this book that would make me want to read it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The synopsis on the vendor pages is accurate, because I wrote it myself. Ferex https://www.amazon.com/Orphans-Raspay... also on iBooks and Nook.

I can't tell if you would like it, because every reader is different, but I can say the hero in this novella is a grownup, with grownup-level problems, which include looking out for other people.

It's fine to start here -- the story stands alone -- although there is a beginning to the arc, featuring a younger Penric, "Penric's Demon", that tells how his string of adventures first got started.

If you do read it/them, do report back and tell us how/if you enjoyed them.

Ta, L.
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What's your favourite thing about getting to write for a job?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Staying home! No commute.

After that, the autonomy, though allowing that one must do things like make deadlines. Or turn in the final work before one runs out of money, whichever happens first.

It also gives me an excuse to be interested in everything or anything, most writers having magpie minds.

It also brings one interesting friends and colleagues. Also, a manageable amount of attention, always gratifying. (Well, when it's positive.)

And so on, but all those aspects are near the top.

Ta, L.
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Hello! I'm Berta from https://schreib-essay.com/blog/dein-gelungenes-motivationsschreiben What is your attitude to feminism?.. Do you think that men and women in modern society are in the same conditions? Thanks in advance!
Lois McMaster Bujold Briefly, to your first question, there are so many conflicting definitions of feminism out there that the question is impossible to answer unless you closely define the term.

To the second, equally briefly, No, especially if you consider the whole planet and not just selected bits.

Ta, L.
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I own most of your books in ebook and eaudio format but get most of the rest of my e-reading/listening from the library. Did you know publishers charge libraries crazy amounts for their ebooks? The example of a current popular book my library gave was $55 for a $15 ebook and $95 for a $40 audio. Then they have to rebuy in either 2 years or a certain number of checkouts. I realize publishers are in it for money but..
Lois McMaster Bujold
Authors are in it for the money, too, or else they have to stop writing and get another job. Or become destitute in their old age, not uncommon, or medically destitute at any time. (Not me -- I've planned ahead, and also been very, very lucky.)

The thing about e-books is that they don't wear out, so placing one in a library without restrictions is tantamount to giving it away for free forever. The money has to come from somewhere, or everyone goes out of business. In the US, libraries are supported by property taxes in their respective communities, and you know how much everyone loves to pay taxes.

I personally would be in favor of a charge-per-e-checkout model, but the complexities of getting such in place are large, especially in the US with its diverse and independent libraries and publishers.

Ta, L.

(If you do the arithmetic in your example, $55 barely replaces 4 lost e-book sales. A popular title may have dozens or even hundreds of checkouts. How does this compare with libraries buying 4 paper copies of a hot title, and then discarding 3 of them when the demand wears off or the books wear out? These problems are more complex than they appear at first glance.)
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
If it felt right to you, you wouldn't be asking, so probably not.

Ta, L.
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What is your most recommended book?
Lois McMaster Bujold One I read, or one I wrote?

If the latter, I see if you scroll down my profile page, GR puts my titles in order by number of reader rankings (and some other factors): https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Which ought to be a reasonably good proxy.

Awards might give another slice: http://www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bu...

Ta, L.
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Lois what is it about the midwest region like Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc. that produces so many of the top writers (serious, non quipy question)? From you, to Rothfuss(Wisconsin), Scott Lynch(Minnesota), Brent Weeks(Montana), NK Jemison(Iowa), Brandon Sanderson (Nebraska), etc. But in particular Minnesota/Wisconsin often seems like some sort of hotspot. Is there some particularly strong writing culture there or what?
Lois McMaster Bujold No idea. But if you add in all the ones who originated in the (broader) Midwest and moved elsewhere -- Poul Anderson, Heinlein, and Harlan Ellison, to name 3 off the top of my head -- it's been going on for a while. Not to mention Gordy Dickson or Clifford Simak, who stayed.

Someone (not me) would have to do an actual regional count of SF writers, calibrate for population density, and compare, to discover if this is an actual thing, or just an effect of expectations of a low density being surprised by an average one.

That said, there were and are a synergistic groups of writers in the Twin Cities in several genres who stimulate each other, but, again, you'd have to compare us with other cities of similar size to see what's really going on.

(I'm actually from Ohio, moved here in '95, but still certainly from the Midwest.)

Ta, L.
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How do you come up with such great books?
Lois McMaster Bujold As for how I come up with books, I could talk about how I write, though not in this tiny answer box -- Sidelines: Talks and Essays and The Vorkosigan Companion, plus some of my interviews, https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au... go into my process at length. Also more if you scroll back to earlier in this Q&A column. (This column could really use a search function. Anyone with more energy this morning than me is welcome to throw in some links to earlier answers on the topic in the comments.)

"Great" is a reader's judgment of their reading experience, which is different for every reader-book combination. So even if you just limited your survey to people who liked my books, the array of reasons and reactions are bewilderingly varied, as any cruise through my reader reviews here on GR or Amazon will show. (Plus some people who had a great reading may not be articulate about why -- commercial fiction read for pleasure does not normally come with a quiz next period.) So that half of your question is the one the writer is least able to answer.

Ta, L.
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I want to become an author when I finish school how do you think I should go about it do you have any advice on how to get a book published to how to become an accomplished author?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My best answer remains the same: go to this blog, scroll down to the beginning, and read up. http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

For a more compact version, there is also

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

It's among the most level-headed writing advice on the net.

My own how-I-got-published experiences are now 35 years out of date for the modern market, so mainly of historical interest. But the very short version is that one learns how to write by actually writing -- and then learning to self-edit. The latter, happily, is more teachable.

Ta, L.
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Will there be more Vorkosign universe books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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Congratulations on your thoroughly deserved SFWA Damon Knight Grand Mastery? Mastership?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks!

It's a career honor, in essence. Which is kind of recursive, being in some sense an award for winning awards, but there you go. I think the equivalent on the fan-or-reader side is probably being invited to be the Worldcon writer guest-of-honor. In any case, all good.

Ta, L.
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Hello Mrs. Bujold. Big fan here. Do you know if NESFA has any plans to publish more Vorkosigan books in hardcover?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I don't think so. NESFA's original motive was to put in hardcover the batch of my early works that had only appeared as original paperbacks. The first eight titles, if I'm counting right. After that Baen began issuing them as commercial hardcovers first, so there was no need.

Unified, complete series reprint editions are a small-demand market (where small = microscopic), and with reason. I remain bemused that the very first fan comment on my announcement of our (somewhat experimental) print-on-demand edition of The Spirit Ring was someone helpfully chiming in to tell the world that no one needed to buy it, used copies could be had on-line for a fraction of the price. Which is exactly why publishers are reluctant to do reprints of backlist (old) books unless there is a hot new frontlist release to boost interest. (Or a big media adaptation, I suppose.)

Ta, L.
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Congratulations on being a Grand Master. Will you be going to the SFWA event in Woodland Hills in 2020 to accept your Grand Master Award? You should have had it years ago!
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks! Yes, I'll be attending. (And you see what it takes to get me... I was about to say "on a plane," but planes are OK. It's the airports. :-)

And, actually, age 70 seems just right to me for this.

Ta, L
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What kind of books do you read or write most?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Actually, both of these questions can be answered by a quick glance at my Author Profile page and the "My Books" link on the header-bar to my recent book reviews, right here on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

And, of course, there's always Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mc...

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
At the moment, My Bad Back, which I've been wrestling with since August. When I finally decide I've found the optimum coping methods, I will probably return to creating publishable prose. Maybe.

Meanwhile, it hasn't been a bad few months for taking in new material. How much of that will be useful later, I never know till later.

Ta, L.
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Congratulations on being recognized as a Grandmaster! And very deservedly so. Live long and publish! I see a question mark is required for a comment to post. Ok, “?”
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you! And everyone else who took a moment to say kind things.

Ta, L.
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Not a ?, just a fangirl gush :-) I loved the prophecy ending Curse of Chalion: “When the souls rise up in glory, yours ...shall be the prize of the gods' gardens. Even your darkness shall be treasured then, and all your pain made holy.” It reminded me of other words I've long treasured, Malachi 3:13-4:2, https://bit.ly/2PdvP9t - in God, my pain is transmuted to treasure, never wasted. Thanks for the moment of beauty!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks!

That was one of those lines that just fall out of nowhere onto the page; alas that there is no way to make that process more reliable.

Ta, L.
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How is Gotorget pronounced? I am listening to the audio book and they pronounce it "Go-tor-get" with a hard 'g'. When I read it I pronounce it with the second 'g' as soft, "Go-tor-jeh".
Lois McMaster Bujold
I pronounce it with the hard g. Both of them.

While I am on the subject, my last name is pronounced with a French, not a Spanish J. I can always tell when someone is from the Southwest when they try to pronounce it "Boo-hold". It's actually "Boo-jhold". (I'm told my ex's family used to pronounce it "Bee-jou", even more confusing.)

Ta, L.
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Hello Ms Bujold! I have been a huge fan of your work for some time, thanks to Anne McCaffrey (she practically threw Komarr at me). I wanted to congratulate you on your recent news, and ask if you find it constricting to be constantly asked to provide yet another Vorkosigan novel, despite your success with other story arcs in other worlds?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, not constricting. I've had decades of practice at resisting other people's suggestions for what I should write. And at least it shows they're interested.

I notice my answers to that frequently asked question are getting shorter and shorter, though.

More bemusing are the ones that come with suggested outlines. Um, that's not how my process works, folks...

Ta, L.
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Now *that* I find astounding. I expect to get that sort of nonsense, I have three books out and folk think that I must be desperate for ideas (really not, thanks) - but you must have a reinforced mantlepiece to hold all the Hugos! Or do you keep them in your office? Sorry to be so obvious with the initial question. My publisher is wanting 'more of the same' and I'm finding it a bit of a trial. Cheers, Elizabeth
Lois McMaster Bujold (This refers back to this OP: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/1... If follow-ups aren't in the comments section, they risk getting separated from their context when the Q&A column gets presented in some other order than chronological.)

I think the fan pleas are more in the nature of a wish-list.

Re: publishers, you have to learn to read publisher-speak. What they are really saying is that they want something that will sell as well or better than whatever came before. Strict series work is an economic security blanket for them. To be sure, they presumably bought the earlier work because they liked it and it seemed what they were looking for.

Tor editor Theresa Nielsen Hayden had a classic rant from the editor's side about "writers as otters" on the subject. Short version: when you try to train an otter to do a trick, and reward it hoping for a repeat, the otter doesn't think, "Great! She liked it! I'll do it again!", but rather, "Great! She liked it! Now I'll do something else that's even cooler!"

(Turning in something that sells better, or copping a few major awards, mutes this sort of thing to muffled editorial whimpers, but one can't count on that.)

My award-storage has moved around over the years. For a while I kept my first Nebula on a shelf over my kitchen sink, so I could enjoy it while washing dishes. (No dishwasher in that old kitchen.) My old house had a fireplace with three little stone shelves that stuck out, which held three Hugos very nicely for a while. My current place has some built-in cabinet-shelves in the back of the living room that houses everything now.

Ta, L.
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More about names in the World of the Five Gods: I live in Catalonia, and it seems to me that various names in Chalion have a kind of pseudo-Catalan feel to them, without actually being Catalan. But Foix is a Catalan place name, pronounced Fosh, and also a southern-French name, pronounced Fwa. You're not J. R. R. Tolkien, so you probably haven't created complete languages to fill up your world. Is there any rationale?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sort of. A quick-and-dirty method for making up a bunch of names that sound as if they come from the same place/language is to take a real-world map or other name-source, chop the place names into syllables, and reassemble them in whatever ways seem pleasing. It is well to have some slight awareness that such names may themselves be the product of several languages layered in over time. (As in the Iberian peninsula.) I often, when booting up ideas for a tale, generate a page or two of possible names to do quick picks from so that I don't get stalled for hours/days every time a new person or place arrives on stage. I occasionally swap names around, if I find I've made a non-optimum assignment, and want the better, more fitting name to go with something that appears more often.

I (and Foix) pronounce his name to rhyme with toy.

Other places on the map helped generate names in other regions of the world of the five gods, some perhaps less obvious than others. For the Weald, I tried to get as many names as possible in standard English, to subliminally indicate that these people have been on their ground for a long time, with less "Torpenhowe Hill" effect. (Which, if you don't know it, is a place in England that back-translates "Hillhillhill Hill".)

The problems of coming up with short, pronounceable names, each different enough visually from every other one used to be readily distinguishable, that aren't accidentally an unfortunate word in another language (or, indeed, one's own) are non-trivial.

Ta, L.
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I tried to post a comment about Penric, but it was rejected because I'm not a friend of yours. I'd really like to be one of your book friends. I've been reading your books since Shards of Honor first came out. I was working in a bookstore at the time and devoured it and all those since. Except Penric. Problem there locally here in Lafayette, Louisiana. May I please be your friend?
Lois McMaster Bujold You may, but there is a system that you have to find and go through, which will cause your name to pop up under my "Friends" icon, with an "accept - reject" button. I can then friend you.

Can someone below please explain how to find and activate this friend-request feature from the reader end?

Ta, L.
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Why does Tigney still have silver in his braid?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Seniority, probably. No one took it away from him, and he does have to supervise sorcerers. Or maybe frugality. Really, one could fannishly devise many possible reasons.

Ta, L.
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I recently read Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (loved it, btw!) in which it's mentioned almost as an aside that Komarr's gravity is less than that of Barrayar. That set me thinking about Barrayar's gravity. Is it the same as that of Earth? And what about other major planets in the Nexus - where do they stand on the gravitational scale? Do spaceships and space stations set their gravity at Earth level?
Lois McMaster Bujold Barrayar's gravity is within maybe 5% of Earth's, Komarr's enough less to notice. At least if one is Barrayaran.

I would imagine most places with artificial gravity would set it close to Earth-normal, for physiological reasons, but really, anything is possible.

No, I haven't worked out a table of astrographic data for every throw-away line I ever generated. If conditions are enough different from standard for a person to notice or to affect the plot, it might be mentioned, otherwise not. (Or if a person is enough different, I suppose.)

Ta, L.
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Happy 2020, with hopes for more Penric and Desdemona adventures. Does the World of the Five Gods have any year end/winter solstice traditions like Winterfair on Barraryer?
Lois McMaster Bujold Happy New Year to you too!

The 5GW has the Father's Day, on winter solstice, which marks the official beginning of His quarter of the year. So it's a somewhat more somber religious holiday than the American winter Saturnalia honoring, as far as I can tell, Mammon.

The Daughter's Day falls on the spring equinox, the Mother's on summer solstice, the Son's on the autumn equinox, and the Bastard's on whichever days are added to make the year come out even for the shift of the seasons with respect to days versus planetary orbits. Usually but not universally the white god's day/s are assigned to Mother's Midsummer, at the halfway mark between summer solstice and autumn equinox. Plenty of holidays for all!

Ta, L.
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This came up in my email even though it's two years old. Out of curiosity, what have been the real-world jumping off points for events?
Lois McMaster Bujold Lots of them mixed 'n matched over the years. (I just typo'd "loots of them," which is also true.) You'd have to specify if you want a particular answer, which you may do in the comments. (Although this question falls perilously close to "Where do you get your ideas?")

Somewhere in Sidelines: Talks and Essays there is iirc a series of six short essays I did for Eos back when The Sharing Knife was coming out, discussing the inspirations for that, mm, anti-epic, which would have more length scope than what I can type in this tiny answer box while drinking my morning tea.

Ta, L.
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Rereading the Vorkosigan saga again. Is Beta Colony your idea of how society should be? I mean all of the cultures have drawbacks - like therapy on Beta is rather scary. But Beta seems to be the most inclusive live and let live, scientifically driven of the worlds.
Lois McMaster Bujold I try to balance my worlds' pros and cons. As I said once in an interview, I don't write dystopias or utopias, I just write topias. "Which Vorkosiverse world would you want to live on?" is something of a sorting hat for fans. Personally, I'd want Beta for the ultra-modern medical care and mores, but I'd miss the out-of-doors that Barrayar or Sergyar would provide. Sergyar (sorry about its unfortunate name; Cordelia or Gregor may yet fix that) will, in about another generation, probably be my perfect balance.

Ta, L.
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What inspires you to write? What makes you choose your genre and why do you like it? How do you reach your audience?
Lois McMaster Bujold These are very large questions to answer in this tiny typing box. For a start, there's this: http://www.dendarii.com/biolog.html

Also this: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...

Also my e-nonfiction collection, Sidelines: Talks and Essays available at the usual suspects, Nook, iBooks, and Kindle.

That should keep you reading for a while...

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I'm a huge fan of your work, I'm finishing up Shards of Honor right now and am thoroughly enjoying it. I noticed that violence against women is a major feature of this story. What's your opinion on how to appropriately depict sexual assault in fiction given the tendency (especially in fantasy/sci fi) for it to be romanticized? Would love to hear your thoughts. Best, Hazel.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, keep in mind that Shards was written in 1983, when the public conversation around these issues was quite different. But in general, I don't think violence against women should be portrayed erotically. Given Rule 34, it really is impossible for a writer to control how their prose is read, though it's at least possible to control how it is written.

My own views on the matter are more bio-evolutionary than social (not that the latter isn't the costume the that former wears.) Primate studies are most interesting to me, because they actually provide a control group for comparison. In primates, non-reproductive mounting (and reproductive, for that matter) a very clearly expressions of bio-social dominance or would-be dominance, a statement of "I am more important than you and this proves it!" (Obviously especially urgent to someone who has internal doubts about their status.) Extension to the highest primates left as a mental exercise for the student.

The deepest work I've ever read on these issues, which I recommend to everyone, is Nick Lane's Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... It's 14 years old now, which is, like, 98 bioscience-years at the current pace, but much of it covers fundamental aspects that have been well-established and aren't likely to be changed.

Ta, L.
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Happy, happy, happy that I am holding my hardback copy of Penric's Progress in my hand! Now I can loan the dead tree version to my daughters, as I couldn't with the eBooks. I seriously thought about a signed copy from Uncle Hugo's, double the cost precludes. :-( I'm praying that the "Orphans of Raspay" is going to appear this way as well? Cheers from a hazy, smoky Melbourne, Peter L
Lois McMaster Bujold "The Orphans of Raspay" is going to have a lovely Subterranean Press edition later this year, but it will be a while before it gets collected, as I'd have to write a couple of sibling-stories to go-with to make up market weight. Baen did such a nice job on the book design, I rather hope so, just to get another volume. Nothing in progress, Penric or otherwise, at the moment, though.

Ta, L.
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Hello Miss, I want to ask you, how to open the book? example : Perang Muhammad Please you explain to me, thanks before
Lois McMaster Bujold OK, I get a few English-as-a-second-language questions that are hard to parse, but this one is utterly baffling. Any guesses?

L.
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I want to ask, how to procedure so that the book I choose can be read? because I registered but did not know which one to click to read the book
Lois McMaster Bujold Goodreads does not sell or lend books -- it is a book review and discussion site. You'd have to go to a vendor, such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks, or one of the others, or a library with e-lending, to get the actual ebooks. The little cover thumbnails on the assorted Goodreads pages are for illustration.

The exception would be if a blogger has a link up on their profile page under "[Person's] Writing" -- all I have under mine is my reading-order guide, though. https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L.
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Good morning sir....How can I read full story from good reads?
Lois McMaster Bujold Goodreads does not sell or lend books -- it is a book review and discussion site. You'd have to go to a vendor, such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks, or one of the others, or a library with e-lending, to get the actual ebooks. The little cover thumbnails on the assorted Goodreads pages are for illustration.

The exception would be if a blogger has a link up on their profile page under "[Person's] Writing" -- all I have under mine is my reading-order guide, though. https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L.
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I've been reading Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books, partly due to your enthusiastic recommendations. Thank you - I'm enjoying them a lot. However, I wonder if you've read the short, between book, pieces Ben calls moments? starting with 'Nightingale: London 1966' http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.com/2016/08/moments-one.html?m=1 I imagine you'd enjoy them. Maybe you have some Moments of your own to share?
Lois McMaster Bujold None of my own at this time, but it's a great idea for/from Ben.

Ta, L.
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Hi.First, please forgive the riend request, was a slip of the thumb on my iPad. Second. I m reading Penric’s Progress, and loving it all over again. I wonder though if you have been approached by any RPG publishers who want to make the world into game? I know SJ Games did GURPS Vorkosigan, and i hope that was mutually beneficial. W5G is such a wonderful and rich place, i feel like it would be fun to play in it.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing significant other than GURPS so far.

My agent prefers to hold those rights in hopes of some larger media contract that would want them (none of which are on the horizon, I would note), so probably would disrecommend the tinier publishers.

Fans can, of course, make up their own RPGs for personal use -- that's normal fanac.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Ah good, I'm glad we figured each other out.

Ta, L.
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I just saw your post about your daughter's artist-in-residency. That's wonderful. As the father of a 5yo myself, do you have any advice about encouraging creativity?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am so not an expert on child-raising. I feel my own survived despite not because of me, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Two off-the-cuff thoughts are: appropriately applauding creative efforts/attending when they are shown off, and giving the kid the space to concentrate.

And, of course, reading to them is always good, although on this site that hardly seems needful to mention.

Also, generational drift being what it is, as they get older their notions of creative media and yours may not intersect as much as you'd fondly pictured. I'm reminded of my mother, who used to criticize my sitting around reading F&SF books in my teens when she thought I should be Doing Something -- preferably chores, obviously, but I suspect also creative activities to which she herself related, such as painting or fabric arts. The reading and fantasizing were just too invisible.

Good luck!

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois I thought the first Penric anthology looked a little underrated on Amazon.es (Amazon Spain) so I thought I´d add this review (in Spanish) under Clariana: https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/1982124296?pf_rd_p=17a988a6-15ad-46df-8d9f-8365d36240ce&pf_rd_r=NAMA654AE8ECH1RKHT29 Do you have a Spanish translator for the Penric novellas yet?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you! That is just the sort of more wide-ranging reportage that this collection needs to get the word out.

No, no foreign offers on Penric yet except Japan, who did a lovely job on their cover last year.

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Now that the 3-story collection makes up actual novel-length market weight, and with a second in the offing, I'm hoping for more action on the translations front, but first, of course, foreign editors need to hear of the works.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois Mcmaster Bujold, I'm Dr. Barbe Biloa- Many from Woodstock GA, the author of Pascal A Journey with Autism. my question is how to market my book please? Thank you, Dr. Barbe Biloa - Many
Lois McMaster Bujold No idea -- memoir is not my genre.

You'd probably have the most luck by finding a writing or critique group devoted to memoir and nonfiction writing, and pool with them for tips and help.

Ta, L.
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Hi there please may I have all the answers on page 24 junior English 4?
Lois McMaster Bujold OK, now that one's just silly...

L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold And another totally incomprehensible random one -- there's been quite a spate of these lately. I wonder why?

L.
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Do you have any plans to return to the World of Five Gods? Curse of Chalion is at the top of my list of best fantasy stories of all time.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I trust you have already found the Penric & Desdemona novellas, starting with "Penric's Demon". (So I don't feel I've left that world, as Temple sorcerer Penric continues to explore it for me.)

Or do you just mean "at novel/trilogy length"?

Beyond that, it's one story at a time, no promises. I don't do "plans" much, these days.

Ta, L.
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Hi, do you write in chronological order or just write which ever idea speaks out to you the most?
Lois McMaster Bujold I've done both, but unless the pictures bloom in my head, there's nothing to write, however many boxes into which stories could go I have on hand. So more the latter, although sometimes that has included the former.

Ta, L.
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I just listened to the Curse of Chalion three successive times. Must be my age and lack of health, but I found him and his story to be profound. In these times where honor and truth seem so passé. I loved how he turned away from seeking glory and found such reverence for kindness. I dare not hope, but if your wonderful genius meets another such character, it would be a great gift. What do you think?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm glad you are enjoying my work!

Well, no two characters can or even should be alike, so I can't promise you another Caz. If you haven't tried the Penric novellas yet, they might work for you as well, if differently, as Penric starts out as a much more callow youth, who is not even now as old as Caz was when his story began. (Start with the e-novella "Penric's Demon" or the Baen collection Penric's Progress.)

Ta, L.
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Did you know the cloning aspects of the Vorkosigan Universe are used as examples by Hank Greely of Stanford's Center for Law And Biosciences? It's really wonderful to listen to him praise FALLING FREE (after 17:00, several places) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-MIGpKYJDk
Lois McMaster Bujold No, I hadn't. Cool!

Ta, L.
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Hello Do you have plans for a French translation of the Penric novellas ? I really would like my French-speaking friends to discover them...
Lois McMaster Bujold Now that they've reached market weight with the two collections, I'd certainly think the Penric novellas could go for French and other translations. That choice is not up to me, however, but rather to the foreign publishers' purchasing editors. I'm sure my agent, who they should know how to find, would be happy to hear from them.

Also hoping, L.
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Hi Do you have any suggestion for those foreigners who are into classical literature but they are not good at english to read books like that? I would be honored if you name some simple works to start getting familiar with both Classical literature and english language,
Lois McMaster Bujold This seems like a good question to throw open to the commenters in the comments section. Thoughts, folks?

Ta, L
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Rereading Mirror Dance (again again). Who was more fun to write? Miles or Mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold Both had their diverse charms, but at the time Mark was the newer character to write. But, really, it was their combination that was synergistic.

Ta, L.
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I came across a line from poetry which read something like- “my destiny must be fulfilled.” I can’t find the source. Could you please enlighten me? Thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, no clue. A commenter may have one, though.

L.
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Do you think nonlinear story telling is better than chronologically written story? If yes then why?
Lois McMaster Bujold It would depend entirely upon the story being told. Nonlinear worked well for Catch-22, evoking the chaos and absurdity of war and ending in a climax of revelation. The Lord of the Rings, while linear, was written in omniscient, which allowed some temporal flex as needed. Most of my work (all, come to think) is third-person-personal, past-tense, and chronological, following the point-of-view characters and allowing the reader to learn things as they do. Really, "better" is not a useful word in criticism, unless it includes the information, "Better for what?"

Ta, L.
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I Whole-heartily Love All Your Books. I've read (or listened) to all of them at least twice. Re-listening to the Sharing Knife series for the 4th time currently. Recently I re-read The Spirit Ring novel. Like all your works, it was wonderfully done. There were so many possibilities and hints for more. Please forgive me if you've already answered this, but why was there no Follow-up to The Spirit Ring?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you enjoyed The Spirit Ring. Well, truly, the answer is, because I wrote something else instead -- the whole run of Miles books through the 90s, from Mirror Dance through A Civil Campaign. Which worked out pretty well for me...

Had tSR been a surprise bestseller, rather than a surprise non-bestseller, I might have had more push to get back to its world, but instead I took what I had learned about how I wanted to write fantasy and went on to The Curse of Chalion, which is still spinning out aspects to explore, gosh, 20 years later.

But I'm happy The Spirit Ring is still finding new readers almost 30 years later.

Ta, L. Still not cloned yet.
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why was the dead man naked?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Why do I get these questions...?

L.
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I absolutely love your writing, but I can't figure out how to buy the Penric books. Is buying the eBooks the only option?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not anymore. There are the two new Baen dead-tree collections, the first hardcover, Penric's Progress, just out, containing the first three novellas, and the second, Penric's Travels, with the next three, due in May. Baen paperbacks will follow at the usual remove. (Baen also has world rights on these paper volumes, so no problems ordering overseas.)

Also, "The Orphans of Raspay" will be out from Subterranean Press in their usual deluxe hardcover come summer. I'll have more about that on my blog as dates firm up. For it to be collected by Baen, I'd have to write two more, however, so that would be a while.

And, of course, Blackstone/Audible/Downpour has the audio versions. Also some public libraries.

Anyway, lots of options. B&N online and Amazon are two sources for paper as well as ebooks. Baen should have some distribution through regular bookstores. SubPress has a different business model -- you need to go online to their website or to a few specialty stores like Uncle Hugo's for their offerings, though I believe some regular bookstores can order them in by request.

(Not quite my mom's old quip about the lazy man who said, "Just roll me over and stick it in me pocket," but darn close.)

Good luck --

L.

(Oh, and as I write this, "Knife Children" is pending real-soon-now from SubPress as well. I'll blog it when it ships.)
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Last summer in your blog, you said you would let us know when/if a date was available for the audio version of "The Orphans of Raspay" - so much anxiety from 2 little letters. It has been over 6 months. Any chance you can at least erase the "if" and let the torrents of hope and anticipation resume? I love Grover Gardner's reading of your work. Please let us know it will continue.
Lois McMaster Bujold We figured out (just last week) that there may have been a glitch in the submission, which is presently in process of being corrected. I'm waiting to hear back, but expect delay. If/when it changes from "if" to "when", I'll make a blog post.

Ta, L.
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As someone who can only dream of writing with the skill and proficiency that you have, can you share with me some of the things in your life that you believe has caused your writing to progress to its current state? Beyond repetition and revision what do you feel has most impacted your ability as an author?
Lois McMaster Bujold Probably the most extensive place to see me piffle on about my writing is at the author interview section of the Vorkosigan Wiki, here. https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au... That should keep you busy for a while. The other two fairly useful places are in The Vorkosigan Companion and Sidelines: Talks and Essays.

And, as always, Pat Wrede's blog on writing is good value, http://www.pcwrede.com/blog/

Beyond that, I've pretty much lurched from project to project over the years not quite randomly, but rather like a person scrambling from one stepping stone to the next across a river, or scaling a climb one piton and some rope-work at a time, each step both creating and constraining the possibilities for the next, teaching me a bit more each time in the doing. I've learned to write by writing, on-the-job training. Possibly not efficient, but there ya go.

Ta, L.
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I'm suddenly reminded of toddler Gregor compelled to rub his eyes and nose - anyone else?
Lois McMaster Bujold What is this in reference to?

(Remember, folks, entries in this column can get separated randomly from prior entries, depending on the "sort" chosen, so one needs to include context.)

Ta, L.
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I see we both live in Minnesota, does our area ever influence plot or location descriptions in your stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, my winter weather descriptions are authentic... :-)

L.
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I've always wondered what makes a story 'good.' What ways do you think would make a story 'good' (that is, why would people choose such a story over others)? Do you think they would say because of the author's excellent writing skills or maybe simply the message?
Lois McMaster Bujold "Good" (which I don't think is really a very useful word, when talking about books) is a quality that does not actually lie in the book, though most people unthinkingly or carelessly assume it does. It actually describes an emotional response on the part of the reader to the text in question, and is thus a transactional event varying with each reading and reader.

So asking the text (or its author) why a story is good aims the question in the wrong direction. You have to ask each reader, since it's only inside their heads that the experience(s) of "a good read" lies. Now, what people will say when asked will depend heavily on how the question is framed.

In general, I think anyone with the nous to see "message" incoming is right to duck, but maybe that's just me.

Ta, L.
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I once meet you at a book signing of your books at dymock's sydney,what is yours latest novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold The two Penric novella collections, Penric's Progress and Penric's Travels, are the latest volumes to be published. Another Penric tale, "The Orphans of Raspay" is out as an ebook, and "Knife Children" also a e-novella, just got a nice hardcover reprint. . The most recent prior full-length novel was Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

Ta, L.
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First, I love all your books. Thank you so much for writing them! Second, in the afterword to the Young Miles omnibus, you mention two Enya songs - "Cursum Perficio" and "Cu Chulainn" - that you associate with elements in "The Vor Game." Is there any other music that helped inspire your writing, or that you particularly associate with the Vorkosigan or World of the Five Gods books?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, among others the songs of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer helped inspire some of The Sharing Knife.

They only made three albums before Carter unfortunately, and prematurely, passed away -- Tanglewood Tree; Drum Hat Buddha; When I Go -- all worth a listen.

Ta, L.
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Lois, thanks for taking the time to write reviews of the books you've read. I've found several new books and authors I now love by browsing your read list. Much appreciated.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks! The Goodreads setup makes to easy to dash off a note, and it does give me a handy record of what I've read. It can be disturbing, looking back over my list, how many things on it were forgettable (and duly forgotten); some quite the opposite, and with little relation to what some people dub "quality of writing". Some kind of independent variable thing going on there, perchance.

Ta, L.
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With the virus closing almost everything down, do you still plan to attend the SFWA Nebula Conference in May?
Lois McMaster Bujold The SFWA folks are working hard behind the scenes to figure out what they need to do, and plan to make announcements at the end of this month. Check back then.

Ta, L.
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I recently reread the Vorkosigan series and noticed in several places a reference to the Vorkosigan logo/emblem (Stitched in silver on brown) but couldn't find a description of it. What is the Vorkosigan emblem?
Lois McMaster Bujold Logo, emblem, crest... I've never sat down and precisely designed it myself, although there have been several nice fan art versions. (People could throw in links to images in the comments, I suppose.) It does involve mountains and maple leaves, and I expect different generations of Vorkosigans have done variations on it over time.

Ta, L.
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You mentioned a local bookstore that has signed copies of your work. I had already purchased directly from the publisher, so I didn't keep the information. But I'd like to support the store. Do you know if they sell gift cards? Could you post their information?
Lois McMaster Bujold My two local stores with signed copies of my work here in Minneapolis are Uncle Hugo's, and Dreamhaven. Both do mail order, and both have lots of different titles in stock. (Hugo's stock is probably larger.) You'll have to ask them about gift cards.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...

http://dreamhavenbooks.com/

Both excellent book places.

Ta, L.
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As a fan of your Vorkosigan universe and also as a big geeky nerd who loves sci-fi RPGs, do you use Traveller or other games as inspiration for your universe? Incidentally, the GURPS sourcebook was my gateway (pun intended) into your wonderful series several years ago. Love that book as well and am forever grateful for coming across it.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, I missed gaming generationally -- when it was coming on as an activity, I was deep into raising kids and booting up my writing career, leaving less than zero time for anything that didn't directly serve same. So I missed gaming as an influence. Although I can see how it has affected other writers and media, which makes for an interesting study in narrative modes.

But I'm glad GURPS led you to my books I was hoping it might work like that. Btw, GURPS Vorkosigan sourcebook author Genevieve Cogman has gone on to her own writing career with the The Invisible Library series, which you might find fun.

Ta, L.
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I was browsing the Baen ebook site and came across this: https://www.baen.com/penrics-travels-earc.html It shows a pub date of 5/5/2020, which of course is more than a month away. I have all these already, of course, but do you have any info on this? Good cover art, too, btw.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, Penric's Travels is a hardcover collection/reprint of my original Penric & Desdemona e-novellas "Penric's Mission, "Mira's Last Dance", and "The Prisoner of Limnos". Following, of course, from January's Penric's Progress, which collected the first three novellas in the series chronologically. I'm very pleased with the art and design for both volumes.

I suspect book distribution, along with everything else, is going to be quite disrupted for a time, which may affect the volume's immediate availability with respect to its hoped-for release date, but books don't spoil. Folks should be able to obtain it through normal bookselling channels in due course.

Ta, L.
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My dad introduced me to your work 20 years ago, when I was a preteen, and it’s been a very important part of my life-thank you! In Memory I’m always struck by the idea that questions don’t change, just the answers, and my yearly rumination on that thought represents emotional tree rings. How has your response to your own work changed over time?
Lois McMaster Bujold That's a very large question to answer in this tiny typing box... Year by year, I abandon old work and engage with new, so the older stuff would fade to a complete blur if it weren't for me needing to proofread reprints, which brings them back on the tide. I only wince some... I am certainly not the same person I was in 1982 when I began writing.

My response to reader-response has shifted to a more relaxed mode, as I am not so anxious to make-or-break it. This is all to the good.

The quote you mention was actually taken from a remark by my dad, who taught engineering, about why he didn't have to worry about cribbing in the tests he gave his students.

Ta, L.
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Was your dad more like Leo or Georg?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I mostly remember my dad when he was older, so, Georg. Due to his profession as an engineering teacher and researcher, a lot of engineers paraded through my young life, including my older brother who went though dad's engineering course himself, so Leo's more of an amalgam, source-wise.

Ta, L.
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You are my favourite author. My to-go book, when I am down is A Civil Campaign. But all the Vorkosigan books are fantastic! Will there be a new one sometime soon?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you've enjoyed my work! No, no new Vorkosigan work is planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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I want to start reading, but I do not know how to use the site to read the book?
Lois McMaster Bujold Goodreads is a book review and blogging site, not a book vendor or e-library. It's not for reading books, but rather, for reading about them; you have to go elsewhere to get the content.

The exception might be bloggers who choose to put their own content on their individual blogs. I use this feature to make a reading-order guide to my work permanently available.

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Ta, L.
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Falling Free is one of my all time favorite scifi novels. Will there ever be a third Quaddies book?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing planned in that direction at this time.

I'm glad you enjoyed Falling Free, though! It's always reassuring to know an early work is still holding up.

Ta, L.
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I really enjoy the Penric series, but I am disappointed that I cannot seem to find them as a physical copy anywhere. Are you planning to release them all together at some point as a full novel? Is there some way I can get them as a paperback or hardcover copy?
Lois McMaster Bujold You seem to have missed all my blog posts about Penric's Progress a collection of the first 3 novellas, released as a hardcover by Baen Books in January, and Penric's Travels, a collection of the next 3, upcoming in May (or thereabouts -- book distribution being disrupted just now. But it'll catch up eventually.)

Prior to that, there were all the Subterranean Press hardcover chapbooks of the individual novellas. "Penric's Demon" is long sold out, but most of the others are still floating around -- Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis still has most of them, signed, and does mail order. And, of course, they have plenty of copies of Penric's Progress. Dreamhaven Book & Comics also has some. Likewise Amazon and B&N.

You get them by ordering them -- waiting for them to spontaneously turn up at any particular bookstore is a crapshoot. Check the assorted websites.

Ta, L.
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I would like to read some short stories that include sarcastic statements, can you help me please by suggesting some titles or authors who write such stories ????
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope, sorry. I am also unclear what you mean by "sarcastic statements", though I could make several disparate guesses. Do you mean satire, perchance?

Anyway, I suppose commenters could have a go at it.

L.
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In a past post years ago you mentioned that you listened to the music of Dave Carter and Tracy Grammar a lot while writing the Sharing Knife series. Because of your mention I now own all those albums - Big fan - Carter will be missed. Their "When I Go" album perfectly compliments the Sharing Knife series. Which begs the question....Is the Sharing Knife series the Ultimate FanFic for Carter & Grammer's music?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, a great many sources went into those books, but if you want to think of them that way, why not. :-)

Ta, L.
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Did you know that John Moglia died? 6/6/2014 in Phoenix. Just thought you should know.
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, I'd been told at the time. I was very saddened to hear it.

(To those who don't know why the name rings a bell, I borrowed it for a minor character once. I trust John was amused.)

Ta, L.
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Which promotion platform gave you the best results in terms of sales and how?
Lois McMaster Bujold I've found the technique that works for me is to write books that sell themselves. After that, sales is their job, best carried on without my interference.

All the other publicity antler-dances are far too much work. Unless the writer is a high-energy extrovert who enjoys such activities as a hobby, the way some people enjoy jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.

That said, of the 3 e-vendor platforms, iBooks, Nook, and Kindle, we use for my indie work, Amazon's sales are largest, about two-thirds, with the other third split between the other two.

Ta, L.
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I remember in the preface for one of your books you mentioned there was a Miles Vorkosigan movie planned, but that it thankfully never came to fruition because of the script. Do you still feel that way about a movie adaptation? Or, if you could pick a director for an adaptation, who would you choose?
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't know enough about directors to choose one, and, let's be clear, it is the producer, the one with the money, who does the choosing. S/he picks the directors and it flows down from there.

I am much less hot for a media adaptation that I was when I was younger and poorer, only partly because the money would no longer make any great difference in my life. When it is so hard to even get a cover that accurately represents my story, a single still image rendered by one person, getting an enormous committee with multiple other motivations in play to do so seems exponentially less likely.

Whatever came out the far end of this movie-making machine might (or might not) be a good advertisement for my books, but it would no longer be my story.

Ta, L.
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I am trying to find the title of a book I read maybe 10 years ago. Probably a harlequin presents. All I remember is that a woman that wants a baby possibly hires a man to spend months at her house, seems like a remote farm with land, to get her pregnant. I think he was a bit of a stranger. I do remember her getting her cycle and his thoughts on how pitiful she was and that it drained her energy. Thx for any info?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no idea why you are asking me this.

However, perhaps some commenter may know.

L.
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A quote online: "writer culture is having that one scene that really scratches your id, and being willing to write forty thousand words to get to it." Is there any scene in your writing that this quote rings true for? If so, which?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, Bothari's death was the first scene I'd visualized for The Warrior's Apprentice, back when. By the time I'd plowed through the 40k words to get to it, it had altered substantially, but it was still the emotional center of its subplot.

Ta, L.
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Any chance for other writers to explore Vorkosiverse? It will be interesting to find what other writers will "do" with other worlds.
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope.

Well, apart from fan fiction, which is not my responsibility and I want to keep it that way.

Ta, L.
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I don't know why, but in Horizon I just read "All the joy in the wide green world to you two", and started crying. Totally not a question?
Lois McMaster Bujold OK?

Also, thanks for the attentive reading!

Ta, L.
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Have you had a chance to read the murderbot series by Martha Wells? what do you think? it’s the second series I’ve really enjoyed that is a collection of novellas. Your Penric books are the first. are you considering a full length penric novel? I see a novel length murderbot book it available now ... no pressure! I’m happy to have just found penric in Japanese on apple books. Nice cover. I’ll enjoy studying again!
Lois McMaster Bujold I've read and enjoyed the first two Murderbot tales, yes. Good voice.

Having just finished the latest Penric novella mere days ago, what I'm mainly looking forward to at the moment is a summer off. After that, no one knows, including me. I'm still enjoying exploring the novella length, at this point.

Ta, L.
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Well, it may be interesting to read stories after Barrayar get "lost" and from time of isolation as well Cetaganda conquest stories.?
Lois McMaster Bujold Sounds like a job for Fanficperson...

L.
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Do you have news about a possible new book where miles acts again as protagonist in space opera like novel? We miss him!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

L.

...Huh. GR suddenly will not allow one-word answers. However true. Weird.

I wish the admin would actually do something useful, like add a search function.
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I've been reading some books published decades ago but only fairly recently available in Kindle format. Some of them have tons of typos in them. How could those be introduced? I would think they'd already be in a computerized version or at worst case could be scanned in. These were best sellers btw.
Lois McMaster Bujold I believe in the typo fairy, myself.

But, in the cases you cite, they were probably shoved up online by some overworked, underpaid minion somewhere with a quota to meet who didn't bother with the vast, time-consuming, and unrewarding tedium of proofreading it all again.

Commenters with experience in these matters are invited to chime in.

Ta, L.
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How long have you been a member of goodreads.com? I’m new and enjoying it so far.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Long enough that I can't remember without looking it up; ever since they threw me (and a lot of other folks) off my original blog host MySpace. I have no idea if MySpace even still exists, but they erased everyone's files behind them.

(Goes and looks it up.) My profile page says February 2012, but this site was being run as a fan thing before I arrived and took up squatter's rights. My first book-notes seem to date from then, so it's probably about right.)

I like this hosting site; it stays reliably book-oriented.

L.
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Please do not steal Miles to his readers , the subject may be a sort of flash back history novel : an old Miles talk to nephews , why not ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Miles & Co. that have taken up residence in your head cannot be stolen out of it short of the fog of time or a major stroke, so you're likely safe there.

Ta, L.
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I was just recommended Paladin's Grace by T Kingfisher, have read it and really enjoyed it - the romance with the protagonists tripping over their own feet and the baggage from their pasts reminded me of A Civil Campaign. I thought you might enjoy it so came to see if you'd already read it - and found you are already listing almost everything by T Kingfisher - except Paladin's Grace. So, a new one for you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
A new one for me, though I have it on my Kindle. I'd started it a while back, then tripped over my belief that it was the sequel to Swordheart (which was a delightful tale.) I need to restart it without spending many pages of misreading. expecting it to be some other book.

I really want to know more about the Dervish (in SH), though I suspect the author may be more interested in the other member of the unfortunate triumvirate, wossername.

L.
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Just gobbled up the Physicians of Vilnoc. Thank you. But I wondered, when divesting himself of chaos, couldn't Penric rot a condemned building from the top down or kill and rot a tree? (a wistful thought for me since I have several volunteer maples I will need to hire an arborist to remove) It would seem less efficient, but also less fraught.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hard to say. Doing in vegetation may be too slow a process to dump hot chaos in a hurry; or it may be a skill Pen acquires later on, should a future plot require it.

Revisiting Joen's leashed sorcerers in Paladin of Souls might give an idea of the wilder possibilities.

I have a fleeting memory of Sophie in Howl's Moving Castle doing in the weeds while in a bad mood one day, but I can't remember if she used magic. It may be time for a reread...

L.
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Dear Ms Bujold: The first piece by you that I read was "The Mountains of Mourning". And I read it in a wonderful Balkan restaurant in Vienna, right on the Ring. I would gladly read "The Physicians of Vilnoc" during a first-class meal (even if the meal is brought into my home these days). But hope I don't have to wait too much longer for iBooks?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad you are enjoying my work!

No, I'm afraid I have no idea what the hold-up is at iBooks. I will probably send in the corrections list to my e-helper tomorrow, which will either kick things along or delay them, no idea which.

Ta, L.
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All of the Murderbot novellas are very good - recommend. I'm thoroughly enjoying a re-read, building up to the novel that's just been released. Fascinating to see here how little gap there was between you finishing the latest Penric and it appearing online - is that a record?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, it was a short gap, but perhaps made to appear shorter by the fact I was keeping quiet about the work until my test readers could see the final draft, and I could get some sense of how it would be received despite the unfortunate coincidence of subject matter and timing. There was also some back-and-forthing about the title and cover before we got it right, which, for similar reasons, I didn't particularly want to air to fans.

It seems to have all come together in the end, though. I'm looking forward to a summer off, after all the flurry of PR this month and leading in to Nebula Weekend.

Ta, L.
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It's occurred to me that, when Penric stays anywhere for a while, there may be a significant decrease in the local population of bugs and vermin. I'm no ecologist, but I've heard about the dramatic and unexpected consequences of reintroducing wolves into the Yellowstone National Park; perhaps wiping out pests could have other unexpected ecological consequences. Is this an interesting thought?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It is, but Penric is only one dude. And sorcerers generally are rather thin on the ground. I don't think the kinds of flies and fleas and mosquitoes and ticks that bite people are in any more danger of magical eradication than whatever dent humans have made in their populations after centuries of trying in non-magical ways. (I.e., none.) Cockroaches ditto.

Though if anything, magical eradication might be better for the ecology because it could be far more selective.

There are also lots of plant and animal diseases and pests of interest, glancingly touched on in the most recent tale.

Ta, L.
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You've mentioned dealing with insomnia, do you ever write during that time? If so, have any memorable scenes or ideas come together as a result of your sleeplessness? Or is the causality the other way around? Can you not sleep sometimes because your mind is too busy trying to solve things to sleep? I'm betting on the latter because Miles.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, I do not create during my insomnia. I mainly lie there and fume.

It also steals my creative and writing brain the next day, because of the deep fatigue, headache, and body ache that result from too little sleep. Sleep meds help general function, when they work at all, but then have drug hangovers the next day that also rob me of higher brain function, so there's no win there.

Insomnia. Sounds dramatic, actually sucks. Not recommended for writers.

Ta, L.
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In Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, where Morozov explains Ivan's relation to the Barrayaran throne*camp stool--can't puzzle out why Prince Xav wasn't next in line for the throne after Emperor Yuri, rather than going over to whatever branch led to Ezar? I know in the past it's been referenced that Salic descent was important for disqualifying Miles, but isn't that related to descent thru Olivia Vorbarra etc?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Xav was a half brother of Yuri, of different mothers. He was born well before Yuri's mother died, Dorca finally married his significant other, and Xav was legitimated. So Xav's legitimacy was always a bit dodgy.

More critically, Mad Yuri had Xav's only son murdered (his daughters survived) so Xav had no successor when Yuri was brought down and they had to figure out a new emperor. He was also old and grieving and very, very tired. Piotr was in a similar state, having just lost his favored heir. The two put their heads together and decided to headhunt Ezar instead of putting too-young Aral in the hot seat.

Good question for historical speculators whether things would have gone differently if Piotr's older son had lived.

Ta, L.
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That's fascinating--thanks for answering! So does Barrayaran imperial succession follows similar logic to the inheritance of Countships--in terms of being able to take into consideration things like suitability for the job or other factors, over totally inflexible male primogeniture over all other considerations (along the lines of what we saw with Rene Vorbretten)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Barrayaran imperial succession, like successions in real history, are pretty much a matter of the moment. Precedents may break or be broken, or hold, depending on what the people with power around the events want to have happen at the time.

"Power" by the way, is a trickily undefined term that usually sneaks by unexamined. I'd define it most broadly as "the flow of will in human activities", which, if you back-translate it into most of the places the word is bandied about, has some odd effects.

E.g, such slogans as "Speaking Truth to...The Flow Of Will in Human Activities". Hmmm.

(Leaving aside the definition of "Truth.")

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms Bujold, I'd like to say thank you for your books! I hope the question hasn't been asked yet, at least I couldn't find it: is the epidemic theme of the new Penric novella chance or do you write that fast? Second question, books remind me sometimes of paintings, yours, especially the novellas, of water-colors. I'm trying to figure out why, is it the story or something like rythm? Wish you a great summer!
Lois McMaster Bujold
The co-incidence of "The Physicians of Vilnoc" with current events was accidental. I'd planned the story last year, based on an amalgam of earlier historical models, run through the peculiarities of the world of the five gods. But it got off to a later start than I'd thought it would, and so the present pandemic more-or-less rose up around it.

Not writing it was, at that point deep in the creative process, a non-option, though I did wonder for a while about finishing but not publishing it. I finally concluded my readers could be trusted to decide for themselves whether it was anything they wanted to read right now. The story will, presumably, be around for years yet.

I like the watercolors analogy. Interesting personal connection.

Ta, L.
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do you play nitro type?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

The GR program won't let me give one-word answers, but it's still nope.
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Hi, there! I’ve read everything you’ve written that I remotely know of! I’m grateful for the enormous body of work you’ve created and the themes you discuss. Thank you so much. I’m excited to dive into The Physicians is Vilnoc and I’m wondering: are there plans for it to come out as an audiobook? I do most of my reading with my ears, these days. Please forgive me if this question has already been addressed.
Lois McMaster Bujold
The story is so new, it's barely been submitted to Blackstone, but we certainly intend to do so. I expect they will want to license it as usual.

When the contract actually comes through, I'll likely mention it on my blog, but really, the pertinent news will be later on when they have a release date. I would assume Blackstone's business is as disrupted as everyone else's at the moment, so you probably need to build some extra time into your expectations.

Glad you enjoy my work, in whatever format!

Ta, L
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what is one of your faviorite books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm, glad you're asking for "one of" instead of an impossible just one. I am at the moment considering whether I want to dip into a reread of Pandora Hearts, at least the first 22 manga volumes, and there's a new T. Kingfisher waiting in my queue. A roundup of some of my reading in recent years may be seen here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Lots of Great Courses lately, but since they are vids not books there's no such handy way to mention them on Goodreads.

L.
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can you tell me what state or country you are in i am in new jersey and what is your gmail?
Lois McMaster Bujold
What an odd question.

Child or scammer? Any opinions?

L.
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So, I usually download kindle and audible files on amazon, but with the Orphans of Raspay, I can only get the audiobook through the amazon US website. It doesn't let me do that trough my local (currently German) page, which tells me there is no audiobook (i.e. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07VFPQ711/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o06?ie=UTF8&psc=1) Any idea why?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The story isn't due to be released on audio till mid-July. I think what you are seeing on Amazon US is the pre-order page. When the novella actually goes up for downloading it should appear on all the Amazons in the usual way.

Ta, L.
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Goodmorning or good evening or goodnight... I am obsessed with your books Ms.Bujold... Please tell me which book you have finished writing currently? can't wait till I don't get that book! thank you! Regards, Sarah
Lois McMaster Bujold
All my publishing news goes up on my blog, here:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Your mistyping above may actually be on-point, given the topic of the latest Penric & Desdemona novella, "The Physicians of Vilnoc", but that, I finally decided, must be for the individual readers to choose for themselves.

Ta, L.
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you did not answer my answer i had ? that answer was can you give me your gmail i am 11 in case you wonder i need to talk what state or city or country are in in?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You already have an email for me. Goodreads has a private messaging system, which any registered Goodreads user (such as yourself) can use to message any other GR user (such as me.)

You are not the first baffled person to resort to the Author Q&A column, which is designed for public discussion of my writing, for other questions. Perhaps some commenters below could offer instruction on how to use the Goodreads mail system. (I don't offhand know if the messaging is limited to the officially befriended or not.)

I would note that other public information is usually available on writers' Goodreads Profile pages or in Wikipedia entries.

Ta, L.
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Not a question but a huge thank you. Since lockdown began I have been rereading as much of the Vorkosigan saga as I could lay my hands on. Between Amazon, Baen, the local library electronic downloads, and copies I already owned, I think I have reread them all, not necessarily in order and some for the 3rd time, and they have provided wonderful escape when the news became too dreary. Any more Miles adventures coming?
Lois McMaster Bujold
First, you're welcome!

No more Miles in the offing at this time, no.

Ta, L.
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When you were producing “Penric’s Demon”, did you have any ideas of the stories to follow, or have they emerged more or less spontaneously from the story well, over time?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Both. My first notions were for an older Penric, but prior experience with series has shown me that skipping over large swathes of time tends to limit what stories can later go in between. Besides, I thought I could get to know him better by beginning at his beginning.

The particular details of each novella were developed one by one, in the writing. I like surprising myself. (And you all.)

I arrived at what eventually became the novel Falling Free, decades back, by a similar process. My first notions were for the race of quaddies in situ in their asteroid colony in Miles's time, but then I reasoned back to their necessary beginning, Leo popped up, and other characters and the story began to coalesce around him.

Ta, L.
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I’ve been thinking that the Sharing Knife books are your strongest and have the most profound emotional punch. My theory is that the settings come directly from your home culture and resonate especially well with readers from the same historical atmosphere. There’s endless presumed knowledge you can draw on and—no small thing—a rich vernacular to exploit. I wonder if it feels that way from the author’s perspective?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Sharing Knife tetralogy has had quite varied reader response, from folks who like it as you do to those who totally bounce off it, for a variety of reasons. (Including the perennial "This wasn't the [name some other book] I wanted to have been reading!" Also, "It's bad, because it's a romance!", which I find a touch a priori.) One can get a sense of the array by a cruise through the assorted-star Amazon reviews, or here on Goodreads.

I think my 1600-page anti-epic is a major and original and deeply considered work, but I'm not prepared to argue with those who feel otherwise.

Anyway, standard writerly kvetching about reviews aside, I'm always very pleased to run across a reader who sees it my way. Thank you for your thoughtful reading!

Ta, L.
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George Eliot wrote always with a sense of failure and doom. Nabokov was fully aware of his greatness. I think you must be somewhat aware. Not wishing for a response here, I’ll just say that talent at a certain level carries the obligation to write, especially if it’s not fading. We’re all at our full powers only so long, but some writers soar well into “retirement” years. I’m afraid you’re still on obligation status.?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am, thankfully, neither Eliot nor Nabokov, and I paid my dues with interest long ago. I don't do obligations anymore, nor mornings.

Writing may still happen. Sometimes. If I feel like it...

Ta, L.
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It is painful to think of, but do you think Desdemona survives losing Penric?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is a good question, which I don't expect to have to address for a long, long time, if Des has her way.

Ta, L.
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Recently I read parts of my first book, published 11 years and books ago, to get details for a sequel. I was surprised at the skill of that alien time-lost author. Have you ever experienced anything similar? By the way, as I do every few years, I'm re-reading the Vorkosigan stories starting with Cordelia's books. I'm buying the ebook versions despite having the print books. Eyesight changes make ebooks easier to read.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, yes, my older books often feel as if they were written by a different person. Which they were, in a sense.

And yes, ebooks for dodgy eyesight are a boon. They arrived just in time for me, and I am grateful

Ta, L.
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Could the Bastard take in a demon whole or must they be dissolved back to chaos? He is a God after all...
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Bastard isn't saying. There may be odd constraints, rare or hard to meet.

Ta, L.
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Just heard the horrible news that Uncle Hugo's is no more. I hope your friends there are all OK?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, everyone in my immediate circle is OK so far.

Ta, L.
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How entirely thrilled I was to learn you've been made a Grand Master at the Nebulas! Are you excited about it too? (Must have a question mark or can't submit comment.) Congratulations and a big confetti toss for this richly deserved honor.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you! It was an amazing experience. The SFWA president, Mary Robinette Kowal, the SFWA staff, and the huge crew of savvy volunteers did a monumental job of moving the whole Nebula Weekend online, pretty much making it all up as they went. They provided an unforgettable (and educational!) experience for the attendees, logging in from time zones all over the world.

Ta, L.
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I’m fascinated by the way your fictional universes address religion. The Vorkosiverse is secular, although individuals may have personal religious beliefs. In Chalion the gods are real, present, dangerous, and woven into most aspects of society. In the Sharing Knife world the gods seem equally real but have abandoned humanity. How did these approaches evolve? Was it fun playing with religion and society like that?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is much too large a question to answer in this tiny typing box, though if you check my assorted interviews from around the times the books were published, you may find some material. https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...

But yes, fun, in that peculiar, absorbing way that writing long projects is fun. (And frustrating, and tiring, and exhilarating, and many other things.)

Ta, L.
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1st, my compliments. Your world building is ever & always the richest most delicious. You are on my personal short list of creative influences. 2nd, is there a connection between the World of the 5 Gods and the world of the Sharing Knife tales? I ❤ the idea that they are on the same planet & have the same pantheon but on different continents at different times: Not-Europe v Not-N.America & Not900s v Not1800
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, the two series have no connection. Unrelated worlds. Both have rather restrained, non-visible magic systems, but that just represents their author's taste.

Ta, L.
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I descovered Miles Vorkosigan very near the beginning of your career, and have been a reader ever since. As a writer myself, I hope you don't mind if I ask you about how you work. I'm now reading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and I find myself both admiring thehard work you put into it, and wondering about all the characters and how you developed them. Can you please enlighten me, without giving away the store? Thanks
Lois McMaster Bujold This is a very large question to answer in this tiny typing box, and has been answered before. It's unfortunate that this Q&A blog does not have a search function, but some of this is covered in earlier posts in this column if you scroll back, and in interviews -- see https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au... Interviews dated around the time of the specific book you are curious about may be more directedly fruitful.

Also Sidelines: Talks and Essays https://www.amazon.com/Sidelines-Essa... also on Nook and iBooks, and likewise The Vorkosigan Companion https://www.amazon.com/Vorkosigan-Com...

I've written reams of stuff on these sorts of process questions, some of it a lot closer to the times of actual composition, so likely to be fresher and more accurate. Have fun!

And thanks for the many years of faithful reading.

Ta, L.

...and now I'm wondering how many readers out there are too young to know what "reams" were....
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't always get royalty reports from the smaller foreign publishers. Glancing back through my contracts file, I see BARD in Sofia has in the last decade licensed the first 6 Penric & Desdemona novellas, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, and Cryoburn; since foreign publishers are also spotty about sending on author's copies, I don't know what happened to them after that.

Ta, L.
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So...what's the transfer of a demon to a new host like, for the demon? Do the personalities of more developed demons ever disagree about who they should jump to?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is so far left to the imagination of the readers. But one may presume it is almost as disorienting for the demon as for the host. Also, every demon is as or more different from one another as every person. It might be possible for the personalities to disagree, although as time goes on they do tend to meld, but at the moment of the host's death there will only be a small number of choices in range. We've twice, with Hallana and Ruchia, seen demons jump to someone nearby other than the new host the Temple presented, but that was more likely disagreement between the demon and its handlers than internal to the demon. Probably...

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't think the text gives enough detailed information to draw close parallels. Not that that stops folks.

Ta, L.
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I apologize if this has been asked before (keyword searches would be so nice…), but is there any chance of the older books in your catalogue getting published by Subterranean Press? They're really lovely editions and having the complete set of Sharing Knife or World of Five Gods or even Vorkosigan books like that would be wonderful.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It seems unlikely. The Vorkosigan and the fantasy series are still licensed to their original publishers.

NESFA Press had a go at producing my first several VK books, which had been paperback originals, as hardcovers, and they're still around as well.

(Also, the vision of having to proofread them all yet again is kinda horrifying, but that's just me.)

Ta, L.
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What is Armsman Roic's first name, please? I can't seem to find any mention of it in any of the books he appears in, not even in his POV sections in Cryoburn or in Winterfair Gifts.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have not made up Roic's first name, so you won't find it anywhere. (Which leaves you free to imagine what you like, for now.)

Ta, L.
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The question about the demon's different personalities disagreeing made me wonder. Does a well developed demon like Desdemona have any thoughts that are separate than the previous hosts? Besides the urge to chaos. Penric refers to Desdemona as all of them collectively, but there also seems to be some sort of unity of thought when he isn't calling on a specific personality.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's fluid, but it does appear that the personalities blend around the edges over time, with the older ones less distinct than the newer. The memories mostly remain distinct, but the presenting persona becomes more of a consensus.

There is some interesting recent research in neurobiology that suggests the the parts of a brain actually cooperate in something of a consensus fashion in generating awareness.

Ta, L.
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How many years did Ista live in Valenda between her husband's death and her flight to pilgrimage?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The text never specifies exactly, but you could work out an approximation from the ages of her children. For one thing, we don't know exactly how long she lived in Cardegoss right after she was widowed, getting more and more strange, before her mother came to remove her to more out-of-the-way Valenda, at what instigation we also do not know. "About ten years" would be a fair guess.

Ta, L.
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My book club will be reading "Cordelia's Honor" in a few months! I'm very excited. It's a potluck book club, so is there anything themed to the books that you think would be good for me to serve? The best I've come up with so far is getting different fruit butters, for the butter bugs. What foods embody the series, for you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't really have an answer for this, but maybe spiced peach or apricot tarts or Jam butter cookies? Flourless chocolate cake? Maybe the commenters below could chime in with suggestions.

I do not recommend oatmeal and blue cheese dressing, however...

L.
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Dag's long process of self-education, apprenticeship, experimentation, and hours of reading case files is a fascinating journey--what it takes to achieve mastery and jump further ahead to the point of ground-breaking originality (pun somewhat intended). Did you have any real-life models of comparable intellectual development in mind?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not especially. Dag's is not a world of schools and certifications, nor of answers to be found in the back of the book, though it certainly contains ad hoc apprenticeships. Pretty much everyone has to be an autodidact, there, plus... whatever one calls it when small groups of people boot up each other, which is much the way the world of grownups works generally.

...Really, there ought to be a plural form of the autodidact concept. Besides "writers' group".

Ta, L.
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Any plans for future expansion of the Sharing Knife world? I was loathe to leave it as it teetered on such social change. Not to mention my indelible curiosity about Nattie-Mari.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My usual answer, alas; nothing is planned, in progress, or promised in that direction at this time.

(This summer, I've decided, is for slacking. After that, who knows.)

Ta, L.
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My apologies if this is too personal a question.. I have read a majority of your books and just finished reading Penric's hardcover editions and re-reading the rest of the World of Five Gods series...and I notice a recurring theme of older/younger romances. Betriz/Cazaril Fawn/Dag even Penric and Desdemona. Drawing from personal experience or drawn to that dymamic for purely the tension it adds?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's merely a variant. There are only two choices of age-spreads for romantic partners; dead-even ages, or some degree of uneven ages. You are just noticing the more uneven ones preferentially. (Although indeed it can add a dramatic element, depending, like any other disjoint cultural aspect that must be worked through by one's characters.) There are lots of even or nearly even pairs as well, that pass by unremarked. Miles and Ekaterin, ferex. Ingrey and Ijada are pretty close, as are Fiametta and Thur, Ista and Illvin, Simon and Alys... the list goes on, but no one makes breathless comments about the near-age-pairs; invisible, I guess.

Ta, L.
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Hello! New reader here, really enjoy your books. Since you have written books of both the fantasy and sci-fi genres I was wondering if it was possible to combine the two? Would you have to minimise the magical element to it or just make magic follow a certain set of rules such as other forces do?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Other writers certainly have combined the genres; perhaps the commenters could chime in below with favorite examples.

I happen to think that genres are a continuum, rather than discrete boxes. (Actually, I think the world of books is an amorphous mass over which we drop assorted organizing and varyingly arbitrary mental grids. Also the world of people, but that's another discussion.) Speaking only for myself as a writer, I would classify anything as "fantasy" in the genre sense if the supernatural, in the book-world, is something real. This does not capture the dozens of subgenres that have other kinds of elements of unreality, from FTL travel to alternate history to, for that matter, fictional characters. But that's a much broader and less useful definition of "fantasy".

And then there's the numinous, of which the SFnal version is probably "sense of wonder". Which is not about rules, but about evoking an emotion of awe in the reader. Which is another slice through it altogether.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
It should all be on this page. https://www.goodreads.com/author/how_to Note especially the several links for further explanations, including the frequently asked questions and the contact-us links at the bottom.

My experiences are unhelpful, since, besides being several years out of date, as I recall I just strolled in and took over my site previously set up by fans. Further tweaking by me involved following the instructions with some experimental back-and-forthing since, indeed, it's not always clear what to do even if one's first language is English. (It would likely help to be bilingual in Computer, which I am not.)

Too, if an entry is not required, one can always leave it blank for the moment.


L.
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Barrayar famously has horses. It also has cats, goats, and other critters from Earth. Interestingly, my family and I can't find any mention of dogs. Is there a particular version for the lack of overt mention of dogs?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Barrayar does have dogs; Dono is mentioned as owning a large and unruly one, not to mention young Donna's ill-fated puppy. There is also a problem of feral dogs mentioned iirc in "The Flowers of Vashnoi".

Young Miles does not appear to have ever owned a dog, so they haven't been front and center.

Ta, L.
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While reading a book about math errors my mind kept turning toward Prof. Vorthys and "engineering failure analysis". In many cases you likely don't have or need specific math details in stories. But I am aware many folks are math-phobic. Does that ever motivate you to slide over mathmatical details? I also wondered if you ever find math fun and creative in itself or is it more a means to an end?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am not a math person, tho' I did get up to differential calculus, decades ago in college. Long forgotten now. I do like the pictures/graphs generated by math -- those, I find intuitively illuminating. I only do or consult on math to get time-speed-distance and suchlike calculations in my tales not-wrong, within the bounds of the possible. This is as important for horses as it is for spaceships.

Ta, L.
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I missed out on an old con with Siegling's tote bags, to my sorrow. I've finally got the equipment to make one myself, but I was thinking that I might not be the only one looking, and so was considering posting the design (nothing special, just a logo for Siegling's vorbarr sultana) on redbubble so others could get it too. Would you mind? And if it's ok, is there a charity you'd like me to donate the proceeds to?
Lois McMaster Bujold You are welcome to make one for yourself, but not to post or sell.

The old source was Steve Salaba at Softwear Toys 'n Tees, who was actually licensed, and sold VK stuff in assorted SF convention dealers' rooms around the Midwest. He might still be findable for mail order, if you want to save yourself steps. My brief websearch turns up an address in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which sounds about right, but the website link goes to something in a foreign language that is definitely not the droid you're looking for. Possibly some Michigan-area fans could chime in with more recent news or contact info on Steve.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
First, congrats for getting out. I've heard from a surprising number of women who felt Ekaterin's story spoke to them, so you are not alone.

Back to fiction, I'm actually not sure what some folks think Ekaterin should be doing with her life, more than the three or four jobs she's shouldering already. Nor how she could fit it into the time allotted to her. I suspect it's simply that they do not value the same things she does.

(The systematic and rather toxic denigration of domesticity and caregiving in our culture is a subject too large for this tiny typing box, but the readerly recoil from such a threat to status, even vicarious, can get quite heated. It gives me, as the kids say, thinky thoughts.)

Meanwhile, standard answer, nothing new in the Vorkosigan direction is happening at this time. It's a frequently voiced question, although the proposed suggestions for subject matter are as varied and wildly contradictory as the readers.

Ta, L.
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How do you select the names of your characters in your books ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
With difficulty. For the books set on our world-ish, I can use real-world names, calibrated for cultures and times, but in the pre-internet days finding such wasn't as easy; my thin local phone book had rather slim pickings. Nowadays one can Google [country name] surnames/popular names for men/whatever, and be spoiled for accurate choice.

For my fantasy worlds, I've found it speeds things up to generate name lists in advance, from which I can just select if a new character or place pops up. (Main characters get first pick and more cogitation.) One trick to make names sound as if they all come from the same language base is to pick a place on a map (or the index in a history book), take the names found, break them down into syllables, and remix them into euphonious and pronounce-able new names. (I'm also trending to "shorter", these days.) Then stare at the list till the right name for this person or place presents itself. A prudent last step, which also wasn't possible before the internet, is to do a quick name check and make sure one hasn't accidentally given a character/place a made-up name that is something unfortunate in another language.

Ta, L.
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Is there a short story or something between the Orphans of Raspay and the Physicians of Vilnoc? There are references in the text of Vilnoc that make me feel like I'm missing something and I went back and re-read from Penric's Mission forward.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, but nearly a year went by for Pen and company between the two novellas, during which the characters' lives did not stand still. Thus the references.

Ta, L.
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Was Halber taken up by one of the gods?
Lois McMaster Bujold If by the Bastard, only long enough to transport him to hell's own rendering plant, I suspect.

:/L
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I just want to say I am new to your whole body of work and I am thoroughly fascinated with the Miles Vorkosigan series! I just started reading the first book in the series after I followed the recommendation of another author I enjoy! I am already on bk 5 after mere weeks! Just marvelous! Thank you so much for sharing your creative and ingenious mind with the world! Which of your series do you suggest I read next?
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you are enjoying my work!

As for what to pick next, it will entirely depend on what aspects you are reading for, or against. Readers are all over the map on this question, reasonably enough I suppose as my stories are not all the same.

I have two fantasy series, the World of the Five Gods and The Sharing Knife. (Plus the lonely stand-alone The Spirit Ring.) The first series is medievaloid-European in inspiration, and the stories are spread around its world but not always closely connected. The second is inspired by, but is NOT, the pre-industrial American Midwest, quite deliberately not lords 'n swords, but deliberately with a strong romance backbone, and is one continuous story in 4 books.

The first starts with The Curse of Chalion; the second with The Sharing Knife: Beguilement. I'd say your best shot is to try the first in each, and see if either grabs you. Good luck!

Ta, L.

PS -- My standard reading-order guide is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Due for another update, I see...
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Would you ever consider having Desdemona meet Hallana's demon assuming it is still around? I'd love to see that in some future Penric story.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, hadn't considered that one. Hallana's demon didn't emerge as a personality much, as that tale did not include her interior viewpoint.

Everything doesn't always have to connect...

Ta, L.
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Do you know of any good resources for getting non-English versions of your books in the US? Or maybe some of your other fans/followers will know? Personally I am interested in Japanese copies (in physical print or ebook) to work on my language skills with something I am familiar with and more difficult than the kids books I can get at the library. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, there's online resources -- you can see if you can buy things off Amazon Japan, ferex. In the US, not sure.

Also, you could send me a private message through the Goodreads mail, and I could see about one other possible source.

Ta, L.
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Don't know if you have control over this but can you do anything to add chapter divisions in audible books? Doing one of my frequent re-listens to the V series and up to Mountains of M. Since I have it in Borders, chapter markers would help me get right to it. Also, some of the Pen novellas would be easier to navigate with them when I lose my place
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, I don't have any control over this. You'd have to ask Blackstone Audiobooks. But I don't think they revise extant audiobooks.

Some of the Penric novellas don't have chapters, depending on what I'm doing with viewpoint cues.

I suppose if anyone knows and tricks or hacks for this, they could chime in at the comments.

Ta, L.
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Did you know that the International Space Station has several of your books on board? https://www.librarything.com/catalog/IntlSpaceStation :-)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, I'd heard that. I thought it was great.

With the photo someone sent me from the Antarctic base library, I can say that my books are read on all seven continents and the International Space Station!

Ta, L.
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Many authors (on kindle - and not you in particular) ask for readers to write a review but I have no idea how to do that, and I'd like to... can you help or refer me to someone to explain?
Lois McMaster Bujold
If you scroll down the Amazon page of the book you are interested in, on the left just under the box with the yellow bars telling what percentage of reviews each star ranking has, there is a box to click on labeled "write a customer review". Click on it, and it will take you to a page labeled "create review" with a composition pane. It should be self-evident from there.

Ta, L.
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Is there any possibility of a novel covering the Cetagandan Invasion of Barrayar at the end of the Time of Isolation? Or one taking place in the Time of Isolation itself?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing like that planned or in the works at this time, no.

Ta, L.
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Hi, my apologies if this question has already been asked and answered, but I just found this "ask the author" section and this question has been bugging me a lot lately... in "Mirror Dance", what exactly alerts Bel Thorne to the fact that Mark is not Miles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
A whole lot of little subliminal (and not so subliminal) things adding up gradually, but probably the final test was when Bel leaned in and kissed Mark, and got a very un-Miles-like reaction.

Their flirting was a practiced near-joke by that time, and Miles normally would have ducked and passed it off with a laugh, not panicked and frozen.

Ta, L.
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Why would you wish to write this story??? It inspires me yet I wonder why make this story specifically?
Lois McMaster Bujold Sadly, there is not enough context in this question to make it answerable.

L.
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You are one of my favorite authors (I named my first leopard gecko after you...), but... I just read The Prisoner of Limnos, and...er... did you do any research on albinos before you wrote it? As far as I'm aware, no human albinos have red eyes. I know my friend doesn't (he's an albino), he just has super, super pale blue eyes. And, at least against a background of other white people, he looks fairly normal...
Lois McMaster Bujold So I am apprised. But if you are willing to accept a world with living gods, chaos demons, shamanic beasts, magical healing, and Temple sorcerers, you can probably stretch it to include some albinos with red eyes.

Adelis's eye color, post Penric, is definitely the result of magical foolery.

(Also, a leopard gecko is a much less alarming namesake than, say, children.)

Ta, L.
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Haha! Sorry that was my little brother Jackel. But he meant to say what your very first story did to inspire you to make more?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Depends on what you mean by "first"; I've had many, starting from a writing assignment in third grade, going on through junior high efforts that would be called fanfiction today (the term was not to my knowledge invented yet in the early 60s, tho' it wouldn't be long), through to my first finished professional novelette that didn't sell, through to my first novel that did. Much of this is covered here: https://www.amazon.com/Sidelines-Essa... I'd direct you particularly to the occasional essay titled "My First Novel" for an answer at some length.

I was trying to write from very early on, though I lost track of myself for several long stretches in there. It took till my early thirties to claim that identity with sufficient determination to see it through.

(Also, lots and lots of reading.)

Ta, L.
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The Miles anthology is begging to be developed as a Netflix original series. Please?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's not up to me, alas. Some producer with a ton o' cash for making media would need to license it.

It's the ton o' cash part that's the choke point on all these ideas. Stories are many, experienced producers are rare, and they are the only people who can actually make the choices.

Ta, L.
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Have you read Run with the Horsemen, by Ferrol Sams? The protagonist is Miles, by another name and in another time and place. Your characters (and those of Dr. Sams) are brilliant, surprising, and so endearing as to make the craziness of their lives seem reasonable. Thank you for sharing your great gift with me and, I guess, the rest of the world.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Never heard of that one, sorry.

So many books, so little time...

Ta, L.
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My children are Elli and Miles (born '95 and '98) ;-) It wasn't deliberate, but we realised after the fact that the reason we loved the names so much was probably because my husband and I are both huge fans of yours. I wonder if you know of many child namesakes of characters? I must say I would quite like grandchildren named Penric and Desdemona but I can't quite see the kids co-operating with that ;-)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ayup, I've heard from a number of people who took inspiration from my characters' names. It's less alarming when it's pets...

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. Do you know why The Curse of Chalion is not available for purchase on the Google Play Store? I would love to read it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
That's correct.

It is, however, available on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes. I know you can download the free Kindle reading app to most devices, and be reading in minutes; I would guess the same goes for the other two platforms. So I don't think you are actually cut off from my ebooks except by your own choice.

Ta, L.
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This is not a question really. I enjoy your work very much. It's a joy to visit the worlds you have created. I'm not sorry to have visit though I've listened and registered to the audible versions....especially Chalcion with the world of the Five Gods and Sharing knife world as well. Is there more from either or both on the way?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing more in the Sharing Knife series is planned at this time. I expect a bit more from Penric & Desdemona from the Five Gods, in due course.

After that, who knows.

Glad you've enjoyed my stories!

Ta, L
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Just finished Physicians of Vilnoc again. Pen often rids his local area of as many biting insects as possible. I wonder about the law of unintended consequences. Do you suppose there would be follow-on effects on the rest of the ecosystem with the removal of the flies, etc?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing gets rid of flies, especially in a world of abundant animal manure. Trust me (and Mark Twain) on this point. And our world has been going after mosquitoes for decades with every tool imaginable, with very little impact. I really don't think a handful of sorcerers are going to make a dent in these very resilient species.

Actually, sorcery ought to be more eco-friendly than our insecticides, since it can be directed to the single biting disease-bearing pest, and leave everything else untouched.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! In the Sharing Knife series, it's described that the Lakewalkers shield their ground by turning it sideways to the world (or a concept along those lines). To me, this sounds like an object in a higher dimension going out of view in a lower dimension, for example, how 3D objects might seem to disappear if moved when viewed from a 2D plane. Did you think of this when creating this magic system?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Something like that, yes. This being magic not science, I didn't specify the details.

Ta, L.
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I’ve always wondered if the choice to name Jackson’s Whole, site of so much depravity, a name so similar to Jackson Hole stemmed from some kind of personal experience in the town in Wyoming. Can you share the reason behind that choice? Thanks for considering the question!
Lois McMaster Bujold
The name began as a mere throw-away line in another story, something of a joke or pun. The development came later.

That's the hazard with throw-away lines in a long series. They can come back on the tide to haunt you.

Nothing personal intended toward the town in Wyoming, though I had been through the area as a child and thus knew the name.

Ta, L.
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Are there audiobooks of The Curse of Challion in French? A google search came up with nothing..
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't believe so. Any translated audio books would have to be arranged through their French publishers, not me, so you'd need to ask them.

Ta, L.
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On the subject of who could possibly play Miles in a Golden-Age TV adaptation, I've been struck by Alex Høgh Andersen's portrayal of "Ivar the Boneless" in Vikings, from mid-season 4 forward. He's born without the use of legs but becomes one of the most powerful figures in Vikings history. Unlike Miles, Ivar is a truly awful person--but charismatic and supremely determined. Maybe file this away in case HBO calls?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am totally not up on modern actors and actresses, alas. I'll have to leave the perpetual casting thread to others. Enjoy...

Ta, L
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Did Penric ever visit his birth family after his studies and taking up work for the Bastard's Order? Or did any of them manage to visit him? Or did they exchange letters? We know that he learned of the death of his mother, but not much more. Love the novella's and waiting in hope for the next, one of these days.
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the ten years before he went to Lodi and then Cedonia, some such must have happened in some form, if brief. A sister's wedding, perhaps, or some business that took Rolsch to Martensbridge. Pen might/might not have made it to his mother's funeral -- a hundred miles (each way) was farther at that tech level. There would certainly have been exchanges of letters. But Pen would be increasingly growing away from the concerns of Jurald Court; interesting to him but not vital anymore.

You will not have a long wait for new Penric news, but not quite yet.

Ta, L.
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I find that several typos I reported on the Dendarii Mail List did not make it into the printed books. These include safeLy where safeTy is meant in Penric's Mission and several in other books up to a name change, two real typos, and a probable missing quotation mark in Physicians of Vilnoc. Where is the best place to report such findings?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I usually run a Goodreads blog post soon after e-pub, for both spoiler fan-discussion space, and typo reportage. It's a good system to both avoid duplication, and collect all the errata in one place. So that's the best place to report to save things from being lost in any of my several shuffles.

Ta, L.
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Thank you in advance if you're willing to answer this question. Besides publishing professionals (like agents/editors etc), out of the "famous" authors, artists, or SpecFi Con participants living or dead that you've meet over your career, who were you most surprised to learn was a a fan of yours? Also, who were you most pleased to learn was a fan?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm always pleased to learn that another writer likes my work. And surprised -- I know how tight their time and attention are to devote to other writers' works. ...Naming no names right now because it's first thing in the morning and I haven't had my tea yet, but there have been several, over the years. Well, Catherine Asaro comes to mind because she got me to write a novella for her romance-SF crossover anthology. Which is how you all came to have "Winterfair Gifts".

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold This reminds me, having just rewatched Good Omens, of the dispute between the Great Plan, and the Ineffable Plan.

I think this one's Ineffable.

Ta, L
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Did you see that Return of the Thief is finally out? I believe you were the one to turn your readers onto the series.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I was aware it was coming up -- being head-down in writing the latest Penric, I hadn't caught up with it yet. I will soon!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm very glad you find my work heartening, but I do have to say I didn't start out to represent anything but the characters themselves. All sorts of characters, in all sorts of situations (that interest me, a necessary caveat), revealing themselves and their stories to me as I write them.

I do think that readers generally pick out and respond to aspects of any tale that resonate with them, regardless of how complex the tale may be. The obvious negative form of this is triggering, or special individual allergies to whatever story element it may be; the less obvious positive form is loving a work for particular elements it presents despite what else it contains. I compare this with how one person's hearing may be especially sensitive or muted in some specific range of frequencies.

Reading a wide range of reviews of the same work gives insight into this effect. All reading the same words, responses wildly varied; therefore, what's happening can't be in the words themselves, but in that other half of the text-reader partnership. (The half the writer can't control, I note.)

Ta, L.
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A note on using the Q&A in work-around attempts to send me private messages... (?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Short request is, Don't, but more helpfully, any Goodreads member whom I have friended can use the GR private messaging system to send email within the system. The trick, it turns out, is that one must have been friended to make the address box populate. This isn't hard to achieve, since I friend pretty much anyone who asks, there being too many to vet.

If you feel you must use the Q&A for this off-label purpose, please make it clear the message is not meant to be publicly posted, and be aware I have no way of answering.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! I'm still not having any luck finding Masquerade in Lodi for the Nook. Have you heard anything? (I'd like to keep everything together in my e-library if possible, but will buy it on the Kindle app if necessary.) Thanks, Jean
Lois McMaster Bujold
As of tonight, 10/21, the upload attempted last Thursday has still not emerged on the other end. Repeated attempts to reupload have run afoul of various blockages. B&N's system won't allow another upload of the same thing, I'm told, though once it does go through, updates should be possible, we hope.

So yep, we know, but the problem isn't one we can solve from our side. We'll keep trying, but it may be awhile. (Think of how long paper publishing takes...)

Meantime, yep, iBooks and Kindle are working OK.

Ta, L.
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I'm sure you get tired of people asking this, but we want to order Masquerade in Lodi in print as well as on OverDrive for the library. Any release date for the print version? I can't find it in your posts.
Lois McMaster Bujold
(Writing at the end of October 2020): The novella has only just been offered to SubPress, ink not dry on the contract, so nothing definitive there yet. Since there are now 3 loose novellas, enough to make up market weight in word-count, I would hope for another omnibus someday, but the earliest that could happen is one year after the last SubPress volume is published.

My next thing due out from SubPress is "The Physicians of Vilnoc", which has been scheduled for release July 2021.

It's likewise only just been offered to Blackstone for audio, too soon for any news from that quarter as well. I'll post it on my blog if/when there is.

We've only placed the first of the e-text novellas, "Penric's Demon", on Overdrive so far, along with a handful of other titles for experiment. They remain available as far as I know. Sales have been disappointing compared to the extended hassle of getting them up to Overdrive's specs, so I don't think we'll be doing that as an indie again. The regular publishers and Blackstone have their own arrangements.

Remember the Baen paper versions for your libraries, please!

L.
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Hi Lois! In Masquerade in Lodi, thank you for acknowledging the question I previously raised here on Goodreads about the existence of saints of the Son. I was tickled pink to read that comment! Will you perhaps be examining that issue in more detail in a future story, or is this all we get? ;-)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Saints of the Son are not impossible (that shaman in "Penric and the Shaman" was nearly one, functionally) but they would be rare. As are all saints, really. But Pen is more professionally likely to run into them than most folks would be; a biased sampler, as it were.

I have no idea what may turn up in a future story. I generally have to write them to find out, myself.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Just a coincidence. I tend to gravitate to certain names or syllable collections as seeming euphonious to me, which, if I'm not careful, can lead to inadvertent duplications. Illyrica iirc is a variant on Illyria, which is or was a real place. I think. I got it out of Shakespeare, so not swearing to its historicity.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. I discovered you with Borders of Infinity and have read your books over the last 30 years as they've made their way to this side of the Atlantic. I've just re-read your earlier Vorkosigan books, from The Warrior's Apprentice to Memory, over the last fortnight. That's the first time I've read them in chronological order and it was fantastic. Thank you. Again. ps what's the best way to report a possible typo?
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome!

Typos in printed books are beyond correction, natch. If it's a recent e-edition, well, maybe, but it involves putting my e-handler through a hassle. But there is space for typo reportage in the spoiler-discussion posts I put up on my blog after every new e-work. You could stick it in there, I suppose, even if it's not for the story under discussion. Keeping it all in one place is good. (Actual discussion of the stories is even better. I notice folks tend to get pretty distracted by minutia. Not sure just why.)

Ta, L.
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I am working on three books, #s 11, 12, & 13. This is usual for me; when energy/enthusiasm on one flags I've usually got one of the others to fall back on. Failing that I reread a favorite book, often one by this writer named Bujold, which always rejuvenates me. I'm finding elements of Lodi seeping into one of them. Does that sometimes happen to you (say of Heyer or Sayers) ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Though I'm glad you continue to enjoy my books, I'm not sure what you are asking. Historical Venice, or indeed any historical place, is there for any writer to raid for inspiration.

Ta, L.
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Happy birthday for Monday! Hope you have a fabulous one?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you! I'm looking forward to a nice quiet day.

bests, Lois.
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Happy birthday wishes from a fan. Take the day off, treat yourself, and relax! (Obligatory: ?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks! I'm doing just that.

Ta, L.
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Hi, I did some fanart for the Curse of Challion, and I was wondering how to send it to you, since you don't seem to be able to attach images in Goodreads?
Lois McMaster Bujold
If the Goodreads messaging system doesn't work for you, which is what I prefer for private messages on Goodreads, I have a semi-public e-mail addy as lois@dendarii.com

More generally, using the Author Q&A for private messages creates dilemmas, and I'd rather folks didn't.

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms Bujold: Do you have favorite lines in your own work, or in the writing of others? And, if so, do they tend to be words of wisdom well expressed, a thought perfectly expressed in beautiful language, an unexpected turn in the plot delivered in a handful of words, a moment of humor? No room here for examples alas (although I have one from you for each category, & doozies from Dorothy L. Sayers and John Morressy).
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes and yes, but I won't clutter things trying to list them. This seems like a better game for the commenters, chiming in below. More room for them there.

Ta, L.
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I just want to say, I love all the vorkosigan books. Cryoburn’s Aftermaths almost broke my heart. You wish to thank you, for it’s all been inspiring and while I think gentleman Jole and the red queen is a great stoping point, hopefully more Ekaterin stories! ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for the kind words!

L.
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How much input into the book covers do you have? - I note that Dag in Knife 3 and 4 is quite different in appearance from the rather attractive 2-spread for the first two books. For me, covers can make a real difference. Thanks anyway John King
Lois McMaster Bujold
My input has varied wildly over the years, from none to much, and a lot of experiment has shown that how much input I have has no relationship to how satisfactory the outcome is. Regardless of what you ask artists for (especially in words), what you get back will be related to the pictures in their heads, or maybe their favorite reference materials, and not at all to the pictures in yours. Words are nearly useless; giving them pictures helps some (an old tip from Jim Baen) but not much. It's a crap shoot.

I had the same amount of input to all four of the Sharing Knife, covers, same artist. What I got back was never the picture in my head I'd started out with, and sometimes not even what prelim sketches had led me to expect.

When one has been handed a finished painting, there is very little that can be done to revise it. First, the artist, who imagined it was just fine, gets very cranky about being asked to go back, and not only because they aren't being paid for that. Note also another limit is that all paper book covers are contracted, ordered, and paid for by the publisher, not the writer.

I've also noticed a phenomenon in myself which I've mentally dubbed "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." If I'm presented with a piece of art that is Just Wrong, I'll fix upon little details that seem easy to repaint, getting pickier and pickier about them as they fail to fix the underlying problem. (And getting the artist more and more irritated, as one naturally would be.) The real solution is to sink the whole boat and start over, which I can only do if I'm paying for it (twice), and there is no hard publication deadline. I've done this once, to good effect, but that was very far into my lifelong learning process. I should do an illustrated blog post about that one, some slow day.

Artists will argue that covers are just advertisements, little billboards that have done their job if they get the prospective purchaser to pick up, or pick out, the book, and the details don't matter. I argue that they are the very first moment of the reading experience just as much as the opening page of text, coloring the reader's expectations about what comes after. Wrong covers start the readers off on the wrong foot, from which they may not easily recover.

Ta, L.
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Just a follow-up on the Knife covers - either I really don't like what publishers do to covers or .... no, that's about it. And I can't believe it was the same artist - but y'know? Thanks JK
Lois McMaster Bujold
Right oh...

A tip, follow-up comments to Q&As are better placed in the comments section following, so they don't get separated from the thing they refer to. Unless you select the "newest first" button, entries are randomized.

Ta, L.
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After reading Masquerade in Lodi, I am now rereading all the Penric books, as there were references in the new one that didn't quite ring a bell. And just this morning, a memory popped up. There is a real town called Lodi, in the central valley of California. Were you aware of it? Credence Clearwater even wrote a song about it, with the chorus: Oh Lord, I'm Stuck in Lodi Again. Oh, and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are dozens of real-world places named Lodi, mostly I suspect after the original one in Italy. I'd selected the city name somewhat idly back when it was just a throw-away line in an earlier Penric story, with no expectation of its ever becoming a live setting, because it sounded suitably Italianate, implying but without obviously being Venice. And so I was stuck with it. (Same goes for the planet Jackson's Whole, btw. No, it never had a hidden meaning, it was just a bit of word-play.)

Glad you enjoyed the story! The filched canal-city setting-inspiration was a lot of fun, once I got down to it, and suggested all kinds of useful plot developments.

(And, yep, I also remember the old CCR song.)

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois, You've brought me endless hours of joy. Thank you. How are you able to bring so many dark aspects (I'm thinking specifically Mirror Dance with Mark and Ryoval, etc.) but the story feels uplifting? I compare this to The Road which I still feel scarred by. Character trajectory is part of the answer but I feel I am missing something.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've not read The Road, so I can't compare and contrast. But everyone processes the same work of fiction differently, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot. So the answer, if any, is more likely to be found in you than in me.

Other readers may have insights on the question to offer, below.

Ta, L.
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Greetings. I don't have a question? I just wanted to thank you VERY much for what I like to think of as the 'Cordelia Trilogy', 'Shards', 'Barrayar' and 'Gentleman Jole'. I love all of the books in the Vorkosigan saga but these are the ones I keep going back to for Cordelia and her outlook and 'do the next thing' common sense. I came to your books late but they're regularly re-read. Thanks again!
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are welcome!

Ta, L.
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Are there atheists in the World of the Five Gods? From your characters POV, the gods seem so obvious and incontrovertible, and we are told that there are those who don't allow the gods "in", as it were - but are there some who say, "Nope, it's all bogus"?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sure. People can convince themselves of anything. And the appearances of the gods are usually subtle, through the material world or in visions and dreams, uncheckable by outside observers. (The Temples do have systems for sensitives to check each other, which reduces false positives and negatives greatly -- much, much harder for witch-hunts or spiritual con artists to gain traction -- but a sufficiently determined person could dismiss this.)

Ta, L.
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Back in September, I contacted Uncle Hugo's for a signed copy of The Flowers of Vashnoi. They said that they were permanently out of stock. Is there another way to obtain a signed print copy?
Lois McMaster Bujold
SubPress is sold out, but Hugo's can still get a few copies, signed, in either trade or leatherbound. Since copies are priced at $295 out in the general collectable resale market (well, the one copy I see for sale on Amazon, not that anyone's biting at that price), it will probably be offered at above list price, but not that high. Check with Hugo's by email and see what they can do for you.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, Have you ever thought of opening up the Vor Universe to other authors to play in? and if you did, do you think there are authors that would be interested in contributing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've been asked before, not least by my publisher, and the short answer is No. Riding herd on such an enterprise is way, way more work that most people realize, and it is antithetical to the way my creative process works.

Ta, L.
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Loved your works ever since picking up Shards of Honour in a humble bundle. When Ivan's place in the Imperial line of succession was discussed in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, it got me thinking about the issue. Did Gregor ever establish a line of succession in the event of his death? Would Miles or Ivan be at the top of the list or perhaps would Aral be called back onto the Imperial camp stool?
Lois McMaster Bujold I never decided this question, though I expect Gregor had to. Miles is not on the list. Leaving aside persons in Gregor's more extended family tree not mentioned in text, the most probable candidate is Ivan, with Aral as Regent/advisor. It's possible they got Aral to sit still for this threat in trade for promising Miles would be kept out.

Ta, L.
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First I would like to thank you for your character Miles Vorkasigen inspiring me to start writing my books. Miles decided to succeed despite all obstacles. I am an indie author from Croatia and my biggest problem is editing books in English because I can't afford it. My question relates to just that little detail. Do you know someone who could help me with pro bono editing? With all due respect, S. V. Cobets
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I'm afraid I don't. I always got along with crit groups and writer-friends with whom I traded, and still trade, test-reads.

One does need to learn to edit oneself, because no one else can really know just what story you're trying to tell, but that's a lifelong learning process.

Good luck --

L.
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Hello, Lois! No actual question, just a nice article: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/dec/04/no-kill-lab-grown-chicken-burger-restaurant-israel I think I know the answer, but still: Would you be interested in a vat-grown burger? Hope you are well, safe and contend! Also not bored. Best,b
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sure, although vat meat won't take off till it's cheaper than the real thing. At that point, it will sell on its own.

Ta, L.
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Hi! I've been rereading all your books this year since August because they are one of my comfort rereads and, since I just had another kid, they're a wonderful meditation on families and what it means to be a parent. And thank you for that! And leaving that aside, I was wondering - while rereading Paladin of Souls - whether Desdemona is still around somewhere and whether Foix dy Gura ever gets to meet her?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad my books continue to serve you!

No, I have made no decisions about Pen & Des's future/s beyond what is set in print -- as of this answer, "The Physicians of Vilnoc" is still the latest in their timeline.

Ta, L.
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I once ate blue cheese dressing with oatmeal just to see. I...saw. Do you remember how you devised the combination?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It was from a Vietnam wartime anecdote told to me by a vet -- in the original, his squad was down to oatmeal and Thousand Island dressing, but I thought blue cheese might be even worse.

The combo wasn't meant to be a recommendation...

Ta, L.
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Hi, trying to track down where to buy The flowers of Vashnoi as an epub. Baen, where I normally buy books, doesn't have it. Lots of the usual suspects offering pseudo illegal or illegal copies but no one apart from Amazon and they only do kindle. Can you point me to a reputable seller? Cheers Paul
Lois McMaster Bujold
iBooks/iTunes and Nook both have it. They and Kindle are the only three authorized sellers of the e-version of this short novella. I believe Blackstone's audio edition may be on a few more vendor sites, and in some libraries.

Subterranean Press is sold out of their limited hardcover; the second-hand market is bidding it up to rather startling asking prices at the moment.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! I know you're a Star Trek fan from WAY BACK! I am too. I watched the first episode as it originally aired, with my big brother. So have you watched Star Trek Discovery? I just watched the first episode of Season 3 last night and Michael's reaction to the truth drug sure reminded me of Miles's reaction to the fast-penta given by Galen. I was wondering what you thought of it. Thanks
Lois McMaster Bujold No, though I was a devotee of TOS in my teens, I haven't kept up with recent Trek.

Ta, L.
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Hi. As so many I am very grateful for your books. Cordelia was something of a role model for me. Her pragmatism about government, about God, about life, and about parenting helped shape the way I view many of those things. I believe I am a better mother, a better social worker and even a better government employee because of how you wrote her. I hope there are more Vorkosigan/Barrayar stories to come?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm so glad my stories served you!

I have no other work planned or in progress at the moment. Next week, month, year, who knows. It'll be a surprise to us both.

Ta, L.
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Have you ever thought Shards & Barrayar emphasized the relationship between person and environment that brought out different versions of each? I feel VSaga is artwork, allowing interpretations within a framework of open mindedness. Mile’s stories had a drum beat of excitement that didn’t let go even when I put down the book. You inspired me to write my own novel, and I can’t thank you enough.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, character, setting, and plot are always interlocking, with feedback loops throughout, so that comes with the fundamental structure of fiction.

Tolkien's famous quote about the difference between allegory and applicability always struck me as cogent. To save y'all the task of looking it up, it goes, "But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and have always done so ever since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

I should be pleased if people find my work applicable.

(I think this quote also nails the difference in readerly perception of a story between "human insight" and "preachiness".)

Good luck on your writing!

Ta, L.
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Mind if I make a comment? Two of the joys of my life have been introducing the VSaga to my now-adult son and having a shared shorthand for expressing ideas, and introducing the series to my husband! Having run out of paperback editions for him to read (I blame my son..) we started listening to the audiobooks whenever we're in the car together. What a delightful way to spend quality time!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ayup, I've been pleased and bemused by how many people read my work in family pods. Very heartening.

Ta, L.
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Probably greatly to your relief, space restrictions here limit the amateurish paean I would otherwise like to write to your talent. Anyway, after my latest reread, I liked that the less pressured pace of Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen let us get to know one of the best characters ever in more depth Do you think your muse will feature Cordelia in a sequel? Less a question than expressing hope. No reply necessary.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for the kind words! No, nothing new going forward at this time.

Ta, L.
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In one source, the Barrayar population is said to be 2-3 billion ie 250m/500m per Count but the behaviour of the Counts is closer to medieval with access via Count's Courts and the like. And at least one Count-capital is at the 250,000 level - or is that me overwhelming with fanfic (oops) Is this my reading or is their a hiccup? Thanks JK
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm not sure where you got that population figure, but it wasn't from me. Too high. Some major cities are that large, though. (Which isn't that large -- my home urban area is something like 4 million, iirc.)

"Current" population of the planet is more than 50 million (that was its population back at the end of the Time of Isolation), less than 500 million. Komarr has maybe 1/10 the population of Barrayar. Sergyar, it's been noted, is up to about 2 million, making Vicereine Cordelia's administration roughly that of a mid-sized Midwestern city.

Ta, L.
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Are you planning to do any more with Admiral Quinn or the Dendaari Mercenaries? I just finished the last Vorkosigan novel...it was my first ever SciFi series and I devoured it and can't wait for more! Thank you for helping me love this genre...although I am worried that I am now spoiled and anything other than Miles (*sigh*) will be a disappointment! Although I was not disappointed by Cordelia and Jole!
Lois McMaster Bujold
So glad you found and enjoyed all the books!

Nothing new is planned for the Vorkosigans at this time, although if you want a somewhat different flavor of Bujold, I'd point you at my fantasy works. The Spirit Ring is a complete stand-alone. The Curse of Chalion is probably the best place to start the World of the Five Gods tales, although the novella "Penric's Demon" is also a possibility, as it kicks off a sub-series.

Ta, L.
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Do you have advice for a young woman trying to get a book published? For example, how to go about the process and determine which agency is trustworthy? It seems that if you are not yourself/do not know any celebrities, the process is extremely difficult.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, it's been much too long since I broke in, and all my experiences are out of date. But I send all persons looking for writing advice to Pat Wrede's blog on the subject. https://pcwrede.com/blog/ It has a search function that might allow you to hone in on posts pertaining to your particular area of interest.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you've enjoyed the stories!

Nothing along those lines is planned at this time, beyond the Ivan book and the Cordelia book that you have presumably already seen, in which Miles, no doubt to his dismay, gets only a supporting role, and the "Vashnoi" novella ditto.

Ta, L.
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Hello! You start Cetaganda with Ivan butchering a Carl von Clausewitz quote that Miles corrects and then attributes to Zhou Enlai. What were your intentions with that misattribution? Thank you again for the beautiful books.
Lois McMaster Bujold That quote is at the present time mis-attributed to many writers, including but not limited to Zhou. I don't think this will get better in the future. :-)

Ta, L.
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Dave Norem Hello Lois, I am quite taken with your quote, "The dead cannot cry out for justice. it is the duty of the living to do so for them." I would like to use it as an epigraph in my novel in progress, Killing, A Real Bad Business, a crime suspense novel? Of course your name would be credited with the quote. Thankyou for your consideration. You can find me on Facebook.
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Dave --

Private questions like these do not belong in my public Q&A space, although you are not the first frustrated GR user to resort to it. The way to communicate on GR is first to request to be friended by the person you are trying to reach, and then to use the GR internal email system. Turns out you have to be friended first in order to send a message, which is non-obvious. After being friended, it should be possible to get the person's GR addy to populate your intended GR email, and send it.

Ta, L.

(Anyone with more tips to offer on this recurring problem, feel free to chime in below in the comments.)
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You have a lot of practical knowledge about horses (Fat Ninny is my favorite, followed by the one that threw Caz), I rode one once when I was 11. I was wondering if it would be practical or even possible to tie, say spears (for transport, not accessibility), underneath stirrups. My research searches gave me the fact that tie-downs are not places to tie things down, but no answer. Aim high, can't shoot my foot. Help?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I rode horses quite a bit in my youth, but never tried to transport baggage or weapons while doing so. Military history from the Middle Ages or antiquity or, for that matter, 19th C. cavalry might help. All the pictures one sees show the rider holding the spear or lance upright, often anchored on the stirrup, which seems to me would tie up a hand; might be OK for immediate deployment, but I don't think it would do for distance travel. Swords did have saddle-mounted scabbards.

Anyone with more info is invited to chime in below in the comments section. There have to be pictures...

Ta, L.
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Good morning, Ms. Bujold! I'm a huge fan of your writing, thank you! I'm far from a writer myself, but like many people, I do have to write some for my job. Most writers say the trick is to just get your thoughts on paper, then go back later and make them good, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what I do. Is that how you do it? And if so, do you think it has affected the way you think and talk as well?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, I get my thoughts on paper, any old how, at the notes-and-outlines pre-writing stage. Jotted in pencil on lined paper in a 3-ring binder, which I keep around my house open pretty much all the time when I'm into a project, ready to capture passing thoughts. Pencil and paper are, somehow, non-binding, allowing brainstorming (or brain-drizzling, or brain light-Scotch-misting.) I think of it as my prosthetic memory on paper, because otherwise things would all evaporate before I needed to remember them. I also do a certain amount of shoving things around on paper to get them into a sensible order.

When words actually start to flow, it's out of the basis of this pre-writing. At that stage, I find it enormously easier to do it right the first time than try to fix it later. I hate doing revisions because, first, my prose sets up like concrete and takes a jackhammer to change, and second, I always worry I'm making it worse not better. (I still revise, mind you, as needed.)

Note that I do this in succeeding scene-sized chunks, not the whole at once. By the end of a project, I'll have accumulated about as many pages of scribbled notes as I have of finished story.

However, more recently, I'm slipping more and more to wholly paperless production, a medium in which fixing becomes easier. I do way more micro-editing when I'm working paperless. (As I have just spent several minutes doing on this very answer.) I still need my notes, but they've been getting sketchier.

So there isn't just one way for even one writer to do things all the time.

As ever, I rec https://pcwrede.com/blog/ for the best stock of writing tips on the net. Don't overlook the very useful search function.

Ta, L.
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Good afternoon! (I hope this question hasn't been asked; there's no way to search "Ask the Author" and you already have 1008 answered questions!) I've been wondering about the origin of the phrase "No artificial shortages!" that Uncle/Professor/Lord Auditor Vorthys likes. Online I found a brief modern use of the phrase on Twitter (someone talking about socialism), and not much else. Is it a quote, perhaps? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, it's a quote -- but from my father, complaining about my mother's overly frugal grocery buying habits. (Not the only element of Vorthys inspired by my Dad; engineering failure analyst, professor, and baggy suits being some others.)

If my Dad picked it up from anywhere, I would not know, but it would certainly have been long pre-internet.

Ta, L.
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More than a question, I want to thank you very much because your books, especially those of Miles Vorkosigan, helped me to overcome a bad moment in my life. Thank you very much, what was your inspiration to create Miles? Sorry if the message was badly written but I used the google translator and little knowledge in English
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are welcome!

Miles came from a number of braided sources, but his beginning was in his parents' story (like everyone else's, I suppose.) Before I'd finished my first novel, before I knew his name or anything else, I knew Aral and Cordelia would have a short, disabled son on Barrayar but, given his parents, he'd probably be quite bright. The energy and charisma, he generated for himself as his story got rolling.

(Young Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence were two other sources that contributed a few more elements, and his Great Man's Son Syndrome owes some of its insight to my relationship with my own father.)

Ta, L.
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Have you had your vaccinations?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Had my first last week. The second, and Minnesota spring, should arrive at about the same time. So looking forward to both!

Ta, L.
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Like many readers, I have my genre preferences. As an entrenched Vorkosigan fan, I've not found as much attraction to fantasy. Year after year I see questions to you in the vein of "are you going to write more Vorkosigan books?" to which your boilerplate response is "Nothing is planned at this time." So, on behalf of my brothers and sisters of the Vorkosigan Community, can you PLEASE consider writing more? Please?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, nothing is planned at this time. It's the most honest answer I can give, apart from "No." Which would depress people unnecessarily, and beside might turn out not to be true if some random neuron fires in the unforeseen future and presents me with something that has to be a VK story and nothing else. (One hasn't fired yet.)

But I'm glad what I wrote in the past is still finding love in the present! (Or the future, from my point of view.)

Ta, L.
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Uterine replicators are happening. "Dr. Hanna said he and his colleagues had taken fertilized eggs from the oviducts of female mice just after fertilization — at Day 0 of development — and had grown them in the artificial uterus for 11 days." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/health/mice-artificial-uterus.html https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03416-3 ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ayup.

I've always maintained that my uterine replicators weren't science fiction, just unrealized engineering. They don't require any counter-factual sciencey like my FTL wormhole jumps.

Ta, L.
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How are you navigating the pandemic? I selfishly hope that you are doing well so that you can continue to write.
Lois McMaster Bujold I Covid-shelter like a guilty pleasure, I'm afraid. It suits my reclusive tendencies all too well. Since I remembered I could freeze milk, I go to the grocery half as often and buy twice as much. The time it takes to use up one half-gallon carton is about what it takes for the next one to thaw in the fridge.

The writing hasn't been impaired, as one might guess from the two novellas last year. I'd retired anyway...

Ta, L.
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Will the omnibus editions of the Vorkosigian books be made available again as ebooks (and will further ones be added)? Super convenient way to read the series!
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no plans for this, no. The ala carte single-title e-editions seem to be doing OK, and are pretty universally available.

Ta, L.
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What are some books/authors you enjoy? I'm still reading through past questions & answers here, but it deserves to be asked even if redundant, as I'd be pleased if you have different answers to this same question as time passes. Your GR profile page doesn't list who your influences have been. Please, could you recommend some things we might be satisfied with while we're waiting for more BY you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, Turner, Aaronovitch, Pratchett, Wrede, Kingfisher, and Heyer are all tastes of mine that seem to have crossover for some of my readers. My "My Books" link, above, has reviews of things I've read lately.

For much older influences, Poul Anderson, Eric Frank Russell, Randall Garrett, Fritz Leiber, Cordwainer Smith for sure, and James H. Schmitz might all be mentioned.

Not genre fiction, but Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, which I reviewed somewhere in My Books, was a profoundly excellent fairly recent read.

This seems like a game anyone can play -- I'd invite folks to chime in below in the comments.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, in Chalion, a lot of the family relationships were lifted directly from 15th. C. Spanish court history, which includes a lot of gossip about people's love lives, true or not, much as the internet has. (It does something to one's view of history to realize that its written sources are just about that unreliable.) There were a couple of weak kings in there who had overly powerful and resented lordly supporters, including Orico's model poor King Enrique IV. Coin flip which members of a royal couple were accused of adultery, but I'll give you one guess which generated the most criticism.

Aral's situation grew more directly out of his own psychology and the frustrated Betan-ness of his beloved wife.
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Artificial mouse-uteruses are here! Mostly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4l5Li_xmnk Had you heard about this? It looks like my 8-greats-grandson really could be Ethan of Athos!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, several people have reported that one. Science marches on...

As I said elsewhere, my uterine replicators aren't science fiction, just unrealized engineering.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This was 22 years ago, and I can't remember what I had for dinner last week, but anyway, the idea first floated up back when I was devising the butterbugs for A Civil Campaign -- what else could I do with this tech? etc. The way termites reprocess and recycle their landscapes played into it, and how their gut bacteria works to break down otherwise indigestible lignin.

There is also a touch of that fairy tale about how the hero/ine is aided in a seemingly impossible sorting task of some fine-grained mixture by friendly ants.

Also recommended: the PBS Nature episode "Radioactive Wolves".

Ta, L.
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I just reread all the Five Gods novels and novellas in date order. At the end of the Hallowed Hunt, Prince Jokol sails back home with a young divine. It seemed to me I read the story of what happened when they get back to the south seas, but I cannot find mention of it in your bibliography. Was I dreaming?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Dreaming, I'm afraid. No such tale has ever been written by me. (I can't speak to whatever fanfiction may be sloshing around out there.)

Ta, L.
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Linda Nagata is a good writer, and she has a crazy streak for spec fic like you do. Have you read the Inverted Universe series? The third book just came out recently.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am woefully behind on all my genre reading, and my reading in general. But I'm sure folks will be glad for the rec!

Ta, L.
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I'm rereading the Penric stories yet again, enjoyment undiminished, and it seems to me that Nikys has become a bit of an author's problem. Would you agree? Up to "The prisoner of Limnos" she was a full part of the story, but then her status changed, and the problem is what to do with her now. Although there's still plenty of room for more stories about Penric before he met her.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, Nikys and Penric don't have a problem with what Nikys does now -- she's fully engaged with her busy life. It's only the antipathy of the genre to domesticity in general and caregivers in particular that makes that what she's doing un-story-able. Producing all the thread and fabric and clothing for her household, ferex, is pretty interesting to the maker, and perhaps to the fabric artists in the audience, but it's not what most people tune in to a fantasy tale for. Nor are the hour-to-hour tasks of keeping small children from killing themselves. Nor is gestation. Yet readers automatically expect grownup infants to populate their stories, dressed, without ever thinking about how they got there and how much labor it took.

Pen, between adventures, sitting happily in his study translating the same book into yet another language, finds it a perfectly absorbing task to him (tho' Des is getting pretty bored with it) but it couldn't be a story either.

Stories happen in the interruptions, I guess. Plenty of room for them in all sorts of spots in the timeline. Especially if one isn't writing yet another universe-saving War To End Wars (and the series.)

Though giving a woman with nursing infants or small children bolted to her an adventure turns it into something a lot less fun, more of a horror story, a genre I don't care to explore at present. Though arguably, Cordelia and Dubauer in Shards of Honor might qualify. (Giving such a tale to a woman with older children has been done from time to time -- readers could probably chime in below with examples. Wrede's Caught in Crystal comes to mind. )

Ta, L.
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I love the character of Nikys, and I'd be happy to read of her again in whatever way Lois wants to do it. Characters do change, if the fiction is any good. I've liked some of Lois' books better than others, but they're all good. I admire her choice of a middle-aged woman as adventuring protagonist in Paladin of Souls. Could her weaving could be part of a story line for Nikys? I'm sure Lois has plenty of ideas already.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, ideas come as they come for me, trailing in as single spies not battalions. I just finished the next Penric tale yesterday -- see my April 16th blog post for details -- so there won't be anything else started for a while. I'm looking forward to a summer off, with some outdoors time...

Ta, L
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Not to be one of those annoying fans who asks when the next book is due when the last is scarcely out the door, but might we expect a third Penric collection with the 7th, 8th, and 9th novellas, and if so, when?
Lois McMaster Bujold
A third collection on paper is certainly possible, and hoped-for, but it can't happen till Subterranean Press's really quite short term of exclusive license for the last story runs out. Which is "Masquerade in Lodi", probably to be published as a limited hardcover by SubPress sometime this coming winter. (I've seen the preliminary cover art.) So no third collection before 2023.

I have a nice series title ready for it, anyway -- Penric's Labors.

Meanwhile, all three collections -- Penric's Progress, Penric's Travels and Penric's Labors -- are available now for foreign language translation sales. With the novel to join them soon, for a tidy package.

Ta, L,
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Also from Cryoburn, when Miles showed pictures of his home to Jin and Mina: "With lots of animals—there had been dogs and cats and birds in the backgrounds of some of those shots, and who knew what creatures lurked in those wooded hills? "
Lois McMaster Bujold
Did part of this question get truncated somewhere?

If so, answer/explicate below in the comments, not in a new question, or the two parts will get separated.

Ta, L.
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I am catching up on last year's entries in the Penric and Desdemona series and am enjoying the pair's adventures in Lodi. Coincidentally, I came across this article today about clocks shedding chaos from ScienceNews: https://bit.ly/2SqTZkT. And of course I thought of our favorite sorcerer of the Bastard's Order. I wonder if Pen or Des would find it amusing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Could be...

Ta, L.
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Concepts of gender identity, being non-binary, and the pronouns used for them seem to be changing rapidly even among fairly young children I'm told. I wondered if you were creating Bel today if you would have used something other than "it"? Although apparently it's preferred at about 10%.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, although less for current usage than that I turned out to want the neutral pronoun a decade later much more for the biologically sexless ba. Well, different planets, different strokes...

English is desperately in need of a gender-neutral singular pronoun, and I wish SF back then had evolved some consensus on one that would have become common coin and leaked out into the culture at large, so we wouldn't be stuck now with the repurposed and confusing "they". There were a wide variety of tries at it, but no compelling uniformity was reached.

(And while I'm at it, I long for the equivalent of the Japanese gender-neutral "sensei", meaning a person having mastery in a skill. Because "mistress" does not mean at all the same thing as "master", and "master" trails yet other baggage.)

Bel actually started as futuristic furniture, just something for Miles to trip over in that first scene back in The Warrior's Apprentice (written 1984.) But then the herm regained consciousness, opened its mouth, and started to talk, pretty instantly becoming a person, and that was that.

Ta, L.
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Do you have favorite characters in each of your series? If so, what about those characters makes them more appealing to you than the others?
Lois McMaster Bujold Much too large a question to answer in this tiny typing box. The major viewpoint characters have to have appeal, or I won't be interested enough to write about them . As a rule of thumb, I like characters, in my own work and that of others, who are laboring on a road toward redemption. Barr from The Sharing Knife ferex, started out in a pretty deep narrative hole, but he grew on me as he gradually started to Learn Better.

A sense of humor or sly wit is always a good sell, not to mention invaluable in bringing snap to the dialogue. Intelligence natch, though intelligence without humor... is mainly funny from the outside.

This question seems like a game anyone could play. Anyone else who cares to compare their answers in the comments, feel free.

Ta, L.
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How do you pronounce Sioann?
Lois McMaster Bujold SEE-oh-ann. Or SIGH-oh-ann if you prefer.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois! Longtime fan, thanks to my cousins, who introduced me to Cordelia & Miles some twenty years ago. As an SF author who's mainly gone the trad route and only dabbled in self-pub, I'm curious about the process of self-publishing the Penric novellas vis-a-vis the traditional publishing route. What's the process like for Penric? Do you hire editors, copyeditors, etc.? Do you prefer one way over the other? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Long years of self-training and self-editing meant it was already my custom to turn in manuscripts as camera-ready as possible. (I prefer to get most of my editing in before the story is done, because I'll be too tired and wired at the finish line to do a good job.) So I don't hire anyone, relying instead on my circle of test readers as before; some fellow writers with whom I trade crit, some old friends whom I just exploit. People drop in or out of this small circle as per their interest and time.

I publish through my long-time literary agency (I've been with Spectrum since 1989), who has a tech wizard who does all the formatting and uploading for me. I could learn how to do that but I'm glad I don't have to. Spectrum also collates the proceeds and sends them on in tidy monthly lumps, and handles the subrights sales -- audio, paper reprints, foreign translation sales. So they fully earn their 15%.

In our early outings, said tech wizard and I devised the covers ourselves, which was a valuable learning experience for us both, but now that it's clear the ebooks will pay for the outlay, I hire out the cover art to a pro, also a long-time friend, at his standard (rather modest) e-cover rate.

Here in my semi-retirement, the virtues of indie epub, besides the higher royalty rates and the broad reach and durability of its market, is for me exactly its independence. I can write what I want, when I want, and no publisher has to eat the costs of any failed experiments. I am especially not obliged to perform more PR than I want to because someone else has bet their money on me. (The semi- in my retirement is largely from public speaking, book tours, and convention travel, all a lot more uncomfortable for me than they used to be.) So I prefer epub now, though trad pub was certainly excellent in its day.

Ta, L.
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Is this sanctioned?: https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/lois-mcmaster-bujold/page,7,45244-the_prisoner_of_limnos.html
Lois McMaster Bujold

Nope.

My recent indie ebooks are available at just 3 vendors, Kindle, Nook, and Apple Books/iBooks, and none are for free. If you see one elsewhere, and for free, it's probably pirated.

(Blackstone, Baen, and HarperCollins reach more vendors, and of course Baen sells licensed editions through their own website, all good. Though also not free. They, and I, also have some in libraries, also legit, and free to the patrons.)

Ta, L.
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Just finished the Assassins of Thasalon. Thank you! It made me wonder. Pen and Des are remarkably compatible, and in Prisoner of Limnos we saw that Pen can control Des at need, even over her objections. But there must be times that they are at odds. How do you think they handle the fact that they just can't get away from each other?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That would be an interesting question to explore in some story sometime. Did they/will they ever suffer the equivalent of the 7-year-itch? It's more likely to be a problem for Pen than Des, due to her deep experience and long view. It really is a till-death-do-us-part issue. If Pen got difficult, Des would likely be the one to compromise and comport -- for now -- because she'd know she can wait it out.

There's also the interesting point that the longer they are together, the more they will leak into each other. This is obvious on Des's side, as she takes up Pen's imprint, subtler on Pen's side. Losing her by this point, for Pen, would be like being blinded and having several limbs amputated. Rather worse than having your car break down, suddenly turning from a magic carpet into an awkward 2000-pound outdoor sculpture.

But yes, some internal arguments could get pretty amusing.

Ta, L.
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Is there any prospect of "The Flowers of Vashnoi" being published in print in the UK, please? (Import costs on the US print editions make those prohibitively expensive.)
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm afraid not.

The nice SubPress edition of "Flowers", being sold out, is prohibitively expensive on the used market now even without shipping, though you can still get a (signed) copy from Uncle Hugo's at market price (ask) and they do ship worldwide.

It may be collected in some larger print volume someday, but that's not on the horizon yet.

Ta, L.

(There is no prospect of any of my work being paper-printed in the UK, my prior outings there having been traumatizingly disastrous for all concerned. Fortunately, ebooks interpret British publishing as damage and route around.)

(Also note the Baen editions of the two Penric & Desdemona print collections do have UK distribution rights.)
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Thanks, albeit for the bad news. (Uncle Hugo's ran out some time ago, sadly.) Not only your British fans but UK public libraries buy your Vorkosigan and later books promptly, or I'd never have come across them. Why do your publishers regard the UK print market as a disaster zone?
Lois McMaster Bujold (OP was asking if the novella "The Flowers of Vashnoi" would ever be reprinted on paper in the UK, to which the short answer was "No".)

My experiences with British publishing are a long story, or maybe a horror story, which I have told before, but to recap in brief:

My first four VK books were sold to Headline for mass-market paperback in the late 80s by Baen's then-foreign-rights agent, as in my early book contracts I hadn't kept those rights. Good so far. (I think the first mistake was not staying with them, but at the time no one, even me, knew how long the series would go on.) Said agent got a better advance offer from Pan, to which my original purchasing editor had moved (I swear British editors should be fitted with tracking collars) and we switched to them for the next few books. About the time Mirror Dance was winning my third novel Hugo, Pan's SF line went under, taking my books with it.

Third try was Earthlight, a few years later, with whom we tried to restart the series at Memory. I see they actually got as far as Diplomatic Immunity. Meanwhile, we'd recovered the rights for the out-of-print books with Headline, three of which (Shards, Barrayar and Warrior's) we resold to Pan in hopes of getting some series synergy going. When they didn't appear after a rather long wait, we made inquiries, to discover 1) the line was going under and 2) they had forgotten they had bought the titles. They reluctantly published them at the last gasp (the undertaker editor tasked with the cover copy had never read them, with odd effects on same), to minuscule sales. And that was the end of that.

Meanwhile I'd started the Chalion books with Harper Collins US, who treated them and me quite well, so we tried that series on HC UK. When Paladin of Souls returned disappointing sales, they declined to pick up The Hallowed Hunt, so that was the end of that as well. No one ever offered for The Sharing Knife series.

Meanwhile yet again, ebooks were at last starting to take off with the arrival of the Kindle around 2010, which was the big game-changer. As my literary agent recovered the rights to all the dead books, in 2011 we gradually got them up as indie ebooks in the UK, where they have sold modestly but steadily ever since.

I actually have no idea what current British publishers may think of my work, as I swore them all off over a decade ago. We gave UK distribution rights for the two Penric paper collections to Baen, who may not do better with them in the UK market but certainly cannot do worse.

Ta, L.
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Dear Ms Bujold: I just had the pleasure of re-reading The Flowers of Vashnoi and noticed that for a run of three pages the character elsewhere named Ingi is referred to as Ingisi. Is Ingisi the full name and Ingi a diminutive, or might this be a typo? In any event, thank you for much great reading and re-reading.
Lois McMaster Bujold Ingi is his nickname, yes.

Glad you enjoyed the tale!

Ta, L.
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Not a question, but having seen the cover of "The Physicians of Vilnoc" I was very impressed by the artist's depiction of an exhausted Penric! ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, I'm enormously pleased by that cover art. Best depiction of a character of mine on the cover I've ever had, and an accurate representation of the story as well. (Although SubPress's cover for "Knife Children" is also up there.)

Ta, L.
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Did you see that while unlikely, the possibility that the Coronavirus was created in a lab should be investigated? Where is Weddell when you need him.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sounds like paranoid fantasy to me. Really, given actual biology, such is not needed.

People do tend to be weirdly reassured to imagine that such things are under some human control, even when they're not. Especially when they're not, I suspect.

Ta, L.
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I was just about to ask what 'ferex' meant, as I saw it twice today while reading through your replies. Then it hit me. It means 'for example'. Is this your invention, or do others use it also?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's a common internet coinage, which is where I picked it up. Like verbal lint...

Ta, L.
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I just finished The Assassins of Thasalon and it wasn't enough. But thank you. It was over too quickly and I couldn't figure out what Bujold to read next, so I just started rereading it. A question did come up while reading the reference to the petty saint at the party. What is the difference between a petty saint and a (non-petty) saint?
Lois McMaster Bujold The difference is one of degree rather than kind. A petty saint can channel a little of a god, a little of the time; a regular or great saint can channel much more. Cazaril was, briefly, a very great saint indeed. The difference between a whisper and a roar, perhaps.

Ta, L.
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No question. Just want to say "Thank you" for all the novels you've written for your readers . I came across "The Gate To Women's Country" many years ago and I've been a fan ever since. I eagerly await every release. I had a copy of all your books at one time but downsizing made me donate them to the library. But I've kept my original copy of "Women's Country". I reread it once a year. Again thank you. Biggest fan?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Er, The Gate to Women's Country is by the late Sheri S. Tepper.

Curious conflation... any idea why your brain/fingers made it? (Did you mean to post this elsewhere...?)

Ta, L.
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I just finished "Assassins," and it is my favorite of the Pen & Des books. If you ever decide to write a story or novel about Tanar, Adelis, and Bosha, I would love to read it! Here is the obligatory question mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ayup, Bosha especially has long tugged at my eye, but a lot of his most interesting events are now already-told backstory, which saps narrative tension. Well, we'll see.

Ta, L.
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It was not till later that I realized what I had done. Please forgive me? I wish I had your books, I'm thinking of the Vorsagin (sic) series. A man of the court, laid-back, playboy but was actually a spy. Was there a story about him? Or is this too vague.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not sure what this is in reference to, since it's a separate entry instead of a comment on an earlier question. In any case, you can likely start with The Warrior's Apprentice, available on Kindle, Nook, and Apple Books.

...Or you might be thinking of Byerly Vorrutyer, who makes his first appearance in A Civil Campaign, sequel to Komarr. I rec starting the pair with Komarr, for continuity, tho' By isn't in it.

Ta, L.
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If someone asked you what is the most important key in becoming a published author what would you say?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This reminds me of that old joke about the fellow visiting NYC asking an elderly passerby, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

To which the New Yorker replied, "Practice! Practice! Practice!"

There is more than one kind of published author, and thus more than one answer with respect to the details, but, "Write it. Finish it." would come first in all my replies. First one must write something publishable. After that comes an obstacle course which varies with the end goal, but one can't run for a touchdown with empty arms.

Ta, L.
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I looked for an answer before I posted, but I'm not seeing anything, my apologies if I missed it somehow... But will Assassin's of Thasalon be available on Audible at some point? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, there will be an audio edition. It won't be for several months, however. I should have more specific news in a few more days.

Ta, L.
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Just finished "Assassins of Thasalon" for the second time. Thank you for a satisfying end/beginning to Tanar, Bosha and Adelis's story. Odd question, if demons arise randomly could one rise into a human first with no animal intermediary? if so, would that make any difference?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, one could. What difference it would make would depend on the particulars of the human (though not of the demon-elemental-blob, which would be identical in every case.) It might feel less like going mad to the untrained recipient, as there wouldn't be all those confusing animal lives/perceptions/memories to deal with, but it would still feel decidedly odd. (Not to mention carcinogenic, plus the new accident-prone-ness.)

Interesting question!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Text does not specify, and Velka is beyond questioning, but we may construe that Velka did not have Sight or any other uncanny powers. Whatever spycraft or informers he was using in Lodi missed that twist, only that "the chancellery sent out an agent with the incriminating letter you wanted".

Ta, L.
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Just a note to Goodreads users about the inadvisability of using the public Q&A column for private questions... to which the short answer is, please DON'T... ?
Lois McMaster Bujold One or two times a month, I get a question posted to my Goodreads Q&A that is not a question about my work, but rather, some obviously personal message or request that cannot be answered privately in this column. Anything that goes up here is for all eyes to see. Please stop handing me the dilemma of trying to guess whether it would be worse to appear to blow the questioner off by not answering at all, or embarrassing us both by trying to answer here. Use the Goodreads private messaging system for such queries -- that's what it's for.

(A separate subcategory are "questions" that are actually the OP's attempt to parasitize my space for promoting their own self-published work, with not only no relation to my work, but no relation to my genres. Despite my sympathy for (not to mention memory of) the desperation of being an aspiring clueless newbie, I have steeled myself to start deleting those unanswered.)

Ta, L.
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I remember you making recommendations on writing help blogs. Am I correct in remembering that it is the Creative Penn you recommend? There doesn't seem to be a search function on already answered questions or I wouldn't have bothered you. Also like to say, love all your work, re-read and recommend regularly.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, the writing blog I routinely rec is Patricia C. Wrede's,

https://pcwrede.com/blog/

She also has an ebook out of collected posts, Wrede on Writing. Excellently useful stuff all around.

Ta, L.

(And yes, this Q&A desperately needs a search function. Pat's blog has a good one, for those wanting to narrow their focus to a particular topic.)
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As a sci-fi fan of books and films/tv, it seems a shame that more of your work hasn’t made its way to the big or small screen. (I see only one credit for you on the IMDb website.) Anything in development on these fronts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope. Not a peep. Alas, it's not up to me. Media is a buyer's market, and the buyers are the producers, the folks with money, other people's or their own -- or both, given the high costs of production.

I suspect few of them are Bujold readers.

Adapting my material also has a hidden hazard in its interiority --a lot of what readers enjoy is actually taking place inside the characters' heads, where the camera cannot go, or in the stylistic voice (which are mostly one and the same, in my choice of tight viewpoint.) It's the great strength of prose fiction, so I play to it hard, but removing that whole layer for visual media would cost a lot of depth.

Ta, L.
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I just have a question about the sacred animals. What would you say is the real-world example of the "great green bird" used to represent the Mother of Summer? And what is a dog-fox for the Son of Autumn? Fictional animal or their-world name for an our-world animal? What qualities of birds do you personally see as representing the feminine (blue jay, green bird) and canids for the masculine? Thanks :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
The 5GU is not our world, so I can have them eating potatoes if I want, I just haven't so far. I have so far also resisted "mahogany" for the typical skin color of Cedonians, although it's the perfect term. So my "great green bird" is probably some sort of parrot.

A dog-fox is actually an our-world term; it just means a male fox. As contrasted with a vixen, a female fox.

The sex, not the species, of the animal is usually matched with the supposed gender of the god/ess. So one might well have a male gray parrot for the Father sometime. Color coded where possible -- if they can obtain something close or evocative.

And if the local temple can't afford those fancy flourishes, five kittens with different colored ribbons around their necks can also do the job. It's apparent from the results that the gods aren't fussy.

Ta, L.
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Backwards book rec, by asking if you've read "The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything" by Ruth Goodman? It made me think of Fawn, and the ways she's cooked. I hadn't realized how different life built around wood combustion was, compared to all the things that had to be introduced as homes shifted to coal. Also touches on domestic issues in the 5 gods world
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not seen, but it sounds interesting. Closed stoves, regardless of fuel, made a huge difference in, among other things, burn injuries and mortality, back when.

Ta, L.
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After recommending The Sharing Knife (my favorite) to my husband's family (I am American he is German) they found that the Lakewalkers invoked an image of Gypsies rather than Native Americans. In most European minds, "gypsy" usually causes a negative reaction. I also noticed TSK was only translated up to book three in German. Was the series less well-received in Europe, including the UK?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My books have not sold well in German. But it's also possible the publisher never noticed it was 4 books, not the expected trilogy -- that happened with the Russian edition. I believe we did eventually catch up with them and get the 4th through, but I didn't know about Germany. Urgh, but too late now, as the books are out of print and out of license.

I really don't think many of my foreign publishers pay much attention to my work...

But no, gypsies weren't in my stock of (several) inspirations for the Lakewalkers.

Ta, L.
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Would the scientists of Penric's day have known that whales aren't fish?
Lois McMaster Bujold This world's Linnaeus has not yet turned up, though s/he will doubtless be a member of the Father's Order when that happens.

:-), L.
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I love Ivan character and even more loved his book (Captain Vorpatril's Alliance). Though I enjoyed the most the scene of Cockroach central sinking and reaction of several characters to it. Simon's, Gregor's and Miles' come to mind particularly... Where did idea come from? Also, have you heard this song?: https://brookeabbey.com/track/ivan-you-idiot I love it. Only shame it ends with Civil Campaign.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Besides reading such classic nonfiction books as Why Buildings Fall Down

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

and a good deal of other nonfiction on engineering over the years, one of the oldest roots, oddly, was from a climactic scene from the old British comedy The Horse's Mouth, in which... is it spoilers for a film almost as old as I am? -- a bunch of justifiably distrait people unwittingly cross a rug that has been hastily thrown over the floor to conceal a large hole, and... slowly.. sink... out... of... sight...

I'll have to check out the Ivan song.

Ta, L.
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I read somewhere that your father was a prominent engineer; did his work influence the engineering-technical aspects of your writing? I'm thinking of the Habitat reconfiguration in Falling Free, the bubble-car system on Komarr, the soletta disaster, and Cordelia and Ekaterin's discussion of city planning for Sergyar.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, yes.

More on my Dad here: http://www.dendarii.com/tribute.html

I think you'll be able to connect some of the dots...

Ta, L.
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I have noticed a good number of similar names across your various books: multiple Dubauers/Dubro, Nikki/Nikys, Illvin/Ilyan, etc. Are any of these an hommage to a particular person, just personal preferences for certain syllable combinations, or merely coincidences across so many richly peopled books? Many thanks for so many hours of happy (re)reading over the years.
Lois McMaster Bujold Partly coincidence, partly no doubt combinations that my brain, for whatever reasons, finds euphonious, and partly that readerly eyes naturally notice similarities but gloss over the more common differences that blend into the general background noise.

Also, one does run out of pronounceable names that are not-our-world after a while -- quite a short while, now we have Google putting all the real world's languages at everyone's fingertips.

(I get the same effect with age differences across romantic relationships; certain ones jump out at people who have sensitivities about them, making them feel more common to them than an actual statistical survey of my characters would support.)

Ta, L.
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Is the "bruising fever" in The Physicians of Vilnoc based on a particular disease in our world, or did you invent one with the characteristics (symptoms, mode of transmission, etc.) that you needed for the story?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I invented it, including the blue horseflies, although it is informed by details from several real-world diseases -- insect-borne ones like sleeping sickness, yellow fever, and malaria, bruising in the extremities like bubonic, and so on. One is spoiled for choice of sources for unpleasant symptoms. I also had a physician test-reader vet it for physiological plausibility.

Ta, L.
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I remember you having Miles say of Cordelia that she has conquered the will to be stupid (a paraphrase as I am too lazy to find it right now). I came across a rather shallow article discussing one aspect of stupidity: https://psyche.co/ideas/why-some-of-the-smartest-people-can-be-so-very-stupid Have you encountered any similar articles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Some, in WWI analyses and the like historical examinations. Stuff on the Dunning-Kruger effect (smart people underestimating themselves, non-smart people overestimating) has been kicking around for a while, but that's rather different.

I understand the use of repurposing of standard English words into specific other meanings for the purpose of precise argument, which he does here, but it irritates me, as it seems more likely to lead to misunderstanding than the intended reverse. Otherwise, yes, I get what he's trying to say and somewhat agree.

My own related observation, which does dovetail with the article, is that stupid (in the original meaning) people fool themselves in stupid ways, and smart people fool themselves in smart ways. Examples of the latter may be found in dead-end scientific theories -- all those complex calculations for epicycles of planetary motion were not done by stupid people -- and high-end theology -- Scholasticism makes an interesting study of enormous amounts of brainpower wasted on systematic rubbish. The biggest problem with the latter category is how hard it is for anyone else to combat, since it will certainly look convincing.

Ta, L.
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Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could invite Penric to come dump some chaos in my garden by killing all the Japanese beetles?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Indeed. Nikys would be a very lucky home gardener, if she had space for it.

Ta, L.
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I am a fan of the Vorkosigan universe. Do you plan on continuing it in the near future?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the near future, no. I am presently taken up with other creative interests.

"Ever" (or "never") is not something I can answer, as story ideas strong enough to grip me trickle in somewhat randomly and unexpectedly. I don't have schedules or contracts anymore, thankfully, so it only depends on my energy level, and conceiving something interesting enough to overcome the temptations of yet more rounds of mindless tablet games. (Which remind me of that old line, "Hard work pays off in the future, but laziness pays off right now...!")

Ta, L.
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You are my absolute favorite author. I love the Sharing Knife series so much! I read it a year ago right after my best friend passed away, and it brought me so much joy, and I still think about it often. My question is, do you appreciate 'Fan mail'? If so, to where could I send it or email it? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
My condolences on your loss, but I'm glad you found and enjoyed The Sharing Knife.

Fan mail is best sent email. Since you are on Goodreads, the Goodreads messaging system would be best. It is non-obvious how to use it, but other posters may be able to help, or there may be a tutorial somewhere around here.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I've just started reading your Vorkosigan books (only 2 so far) but I absolutely love them. I'm the type of person that really enjoys looking up the reading order of long series and tackling them as the author intended, I've read your recommendation here on goodreads and appreciate the clarification from you. I have a 2 part question (EDIT character limit please see following separate messages)?
Lois McMaster Bujold Right oh. Where possible, it's a good idea for folks to put follow-up questions in the comments section if you want them to be seen together, because GR's random-sort presentation (if you don't select "newest first") may separate them.

L.
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Question 2? Have you (or your agent) thought of doing an Ebook box set with the correct reading order and all installments for an easy complete purchase? Even the Ebooks are kind of hard to scour through to find the right ones. I realize this isn't always simple with licensing rights and whatnot. To finish, thanks for writing what is one of my favorite universes to be immersed in. Cheers
Lois McMaster Bujold
No "box" sets planned for ebooks, but really, Amazon has already done this -- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07W9LXSYG

You just have to click on the series link (in rather tiny print, admittedly) toward the top of the book descriptions on the vendor page.

(Though I see, looking at the Amazon page just now, that Borders of Infinity is missing from the list -- it's actually a 17-book series. Getting corrections out of the Amazon bots is like pushing pudding uphill, so we may not be able to fix this, but I'll bring it to someone's attention.)

Not sure what Nook and Apple Books offer in terms of cross-linkage; someone who uses them may chime in down in the comments.

In addition, my reading-order guide, including the (complete) chronological-order list, appears in the back of every. single. copy of every. single. title of ALL my indie-published ebooks. I have no idea why or how so many people (not just you) are managing not to find it. We've also recently put the "other books by" up in the front matter, so people hitting the "Look Inside" function will come across it right away.

Hope this helps --

Ta, L.
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Question 1? Who is the current publisher with the rights to your Vorkosigan books. I would love to purchase the physical copies but I'm a bit OCD. I would love the covers to match and hopefully get a complete set. (Not tiny font would be good for my eyesight.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My print publisher for the Vorkosigan Series remains Baen Books, who have faithfully (if sometimes intermittently) kept them in print since 1986.

There have been lots of editions and different cover iterations over that stretch of time. The most recent that comes closest to what you want (including larger print) are their trade paperback reprints, but I'm not sure that list was ever completed. (Though the more recent titles have included going through a trade paperback morph between the hardcover and the mass-market paperbacks, so all the 17 titles may in fact all be covered out there in trade paperback.)

...Aaand I was going to link a sample, but I see that edition is out of print, defeating my own remark -- https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Appre...

But there's a problem of scale for all publishers with paper reprints. Basically, they can seldom sell enough copies of newly printed old (aka "backlist") books to pay for the effort, especially with cheap used copies of the older titles being so easy to find on the internet these days. About the only time one would see that occur is with a very popular series that has a new ("frontlist") book coming out, to which the older titles can be attached.

Remember, a publisher's paying customers for paper books aren't readers, they are bookstores and chains, wholesalers, and other vendors. Those folks are the ones who have to decide whether to buy a book, and they must do so before any end user ever gets a chance to see it in a store. They don't want to lose money and go out of business either, so they mainly filter for salability.

Ta, L.

(Heh, and now I'm reminded of my own experimental foray into print-on-demand for a fresh trade paperback edition The Spirit Ring. When I posted the news, the very first comment anyone made on it was a guy complaining about the price and telling everyone they could get a used copy cheaper.)
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Not so much a question but I’m coming up on the end of the Vorkosigan saga and am already feeling an intense longing for more books that I haven’t felt since I finished the Culture series. So just a plea from a recent but now steadfast fan for more Miles please if one could wish? :-)
Lois McMaster Bujold
A frequently asked question. Frequent answer: nothing planned, nothing in progress, nothing ruled out.

If you are ambidextrous to fantasy, I have quite a few more works of mine I could point you to, but if you're here you presumably already know about them. In your own time, as they used to say to cannoneers taking aim.

But it's always nice to hear my books are still finding new readers so far into their lifespans!

Ta, L.
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Just finished rereading Assassins of Thasalon. Thank you for the entertaining and satisfying end (beginning?) to Adelis, Tanar and Bosha's story,. Thank you for Chadro's HEA. And thank you especially for Iroki. I must remember in future not to ask too small. My only question is about pronunciation. Where is the emphasis in Arisadia? In my head I go back and forth between AriSAYdia and ArisayDIa.
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you enjoyed it -- twice! It's always nice to know my works stands up.

Oh, yes. Bosha was a scene-stealer from his first moment on stage.

Ari-SAY-dia is correct, or at least the way I pronounce it. (Also NICK-ease, although I believe Grover went with something more Greek-sounding.)

Ta, L.
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Not a Q, but I want to say thank you for creating Penric. He’s proof that characters who are kind and compassionate can also be complex and riveting to read. His grief over losing a mother (and mother figure?) and his emotional scarring from physician fatigue feels very real. The conversation between him and Nikys at the temple in Penric’s Mission is one of my fave scenes (and the one with Chio at the end of Lodi).
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

I actually consider Penric to be a pretty normal human being, well, apart from his profession. I'm not sure what it says about our current fiction that he stands out... (There's that line in Thasalon, "Normal people carrying on with unthinking kindness must be as shocking as sudden sunlight to such dark-adapted eyes..." We may have been reading in the dark for a little too long.)

Ta, L.
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Do we have any idea about the early history / founding of Centaganda? How it ended up so (seemingly) divergent from Galactic culture? Unrelated note, but I've always really loved the place names in your books, especially the Vorkosigan saga.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope.

It was likely highly planned to some scientific aesthetic, and, like Athos, veered away from the founders' original visions over time. Real-world example over a similar number of centuries: the Bay Colony vs. 21st C. Boston. I doubt many of the pilgrims could have pictured it, even with 1600s European cities as a model.

Glad you like the names! They are always a challenge for me.

Ta, L.
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So I was rereading Falling Free the other day, and I don't recall that it says anywhere how to pronounce the name of the planet Rodeo. Was it perhaps originally discovered by space Texans (ROH-dee-oh), or maybe Escobarans (roh-DAY-oh)? :) Just something I kept wondering about.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't have a strong preference, but I'd probably go with roh-DAY-oh.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois, Have you read Daggerspell? I am curious what you think as I've read it for the first time recently and thought it was such a wonderfully strange book, much different than so many things of that era (well of any era, really) yet I don't hear many people talk about it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, never heard of it, sorry. Commenters below may have...

L.
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I've seen speculation that the WOFG and Wide Green World are the same world at different times and/or places. They don't "feel" similar to me. You? Also - plunkin - melon, squash, tuber, or?
Lois McMaster Bujold No, the WotFG (sometimes abbreviated 5GU) and the Wide Green World are separate creations, never to be conjoined. No matter how hard some tidy-minded fans try.

Plunkins come from water lily roots (magically bioengineered, so GMOs of a sort.) So, probably some sort of tuber, though a proper botanist could likely specify more precisely.

Ta, L.
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Lately, I find myself rereading old favorites like all your books versus making it through anything new by newer authors. In your experience/view, what makes a book rereadable? And are you working on anything now? Because for me, I have concluded that I get spoiled by quality storytelling combined with quality stories, and so far you are batting 999.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thanks for the kind words! Answering the second question first, another Penric novella. I hope to get it done and up in another month or so. (We're talking about late 2021, here.)

For the first question, that will change with every reader, and with the same reader over time. But for me, what makes books rereadable are characters that for one reason or another I have come to care a lot about, and so want to be with again. Plot is more of a once-and-done thing.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Don't know Squid Game, so, none.

Ta, L.
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Thank you so much for your reply and for taking the time. I’ve definitely been eyeing the fantasy novels. Appreciate your reply and thank you again for the good times with Miles and everyone else :-) no need to reply - just wanted to let you know it was cool to get a reply! Needs to end with a question mark so ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Right oh...

A general reminder, personal messages that one does not want posted for the world to read should go on the Goodreads messaging system, to be found under the little envelope icon at the top right.

Ta, L.
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First I want to say I love The Miles series and I've always wanted to ask if the condition of Miles bones was based on a real condition or just something you came up with? The reason I ask is I have a bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta a.k.a. Brittle Bones disease so i can relate in a way to Miles in a strange way.
Lois McMaster Bujold Miles's bone problems are inspired by brittle bone disease, yes, but I prudently made the cause something more science fictional in case I needed to adjust it to the needs of my plot and characterization. It is not the our-world version, any more than the bioengineered Betan herms are the our-world version of any of the assortment of natural intersex conditions, in the underlying medical details.

Anyway, glad you are enjoying Miles, and that his medical issues ring true for you at least metaphorically. (Which is kinda what fiction does.)

Ta, L.
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Having just read about your early career as editor of StarDate, I wondered if you watched William Shatner's trip to space this week? I think it would be very hard to deny the impact of Star Trek, and all the creative minds that worked on it, on our steps into space. In all the brilliant sci fi you have written, are there any concepts you wrote about that you would like to try in your 90th year?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In my 90th year (or any time now): Betan medicine, natch.

(Star Date was a one-shot Star Trek fanzine (do I need to add "on paper"?) that some friends of mine and I put together out of high school in 1968. I still have a couple of copies in my filing cabinet. The first, but not the last, time Ron Miller supplied me with illustrations, heh.)

Ta, L.
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I am a long time fan of your works. However, I had never read King Lear, the Shakespeare play, until yesterday. Did you name Cordelia (mother of Miles, wife of Aral) after Lear's youngest daughter, known for her honesty, at times against her self interest?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, actually. Just a coincidence, if not a bad one.

Ta, L.
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Hi! I am a huge fan. I have been re-listening to the Vorkosigan books recently, and I was wondering… have you considered writing a book about one or more of Elli Quinn’s sons leaving Athos and coming to find her? I think it would be really fun to see how they interact during an adventure together. Thanks so much for your wonderful books!
Lois McMaster Bujold
That is actually a reflection I'd entertained, years ago, but I've never been moved to explore it further.

Glad you enjoy my work!

Ta, L.
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I respect that authors must follow their muse. Contradictorily, I really want more in the Vorkosigan universe, whether novels or shorter stories like the Penric work. One thought as I’m rereading the series for the I don’t know how many times is to wonder about how Bel is doing after his experience in Diplomatic Immunity and maybe we find out because one or more of Miles and Ekaterin’s kids visit quaddie space?
Lois McMaster Bujold (The OP adds): "WRT my previous question, my deepest apologies if it’s offensive. It just reflected two things I’m curious about? I think your work is amazing. I read excessively and have found no one that equals you in character development." Pasted together here because GR separates posts randomly.

To answer the second part first, not offensive, just common. Among the most frequently asked fan questions are some variations of, "Can I get more of whatever character/situation intrigued me in X story?"

If people are still thinking about my stories after they finish reading, it's a good sign I've done my job well for them. Nonetheless, I can't give a promising answer, especially not to all of them. (There have to be hundreds by now!)

There are interesting time/shift issues going on underneath, as well. People who are just stumbling across my work for the first time recently (bless them) are getting stories that came out of my head over the span of decades, all piled up at once. I'm not the same writer (or person) I was ten, twenty, thirty, or now almost forty years ago (and a good thing too); I had different psychological concerns to explore at all those times, and so different ones now. (As some readers who were taken aback by Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen have cause to know, and even that is, in the initial conception and writing, almost a decade old.)

Which is a long way around to say (tl;dnr) "Nope." And also never certain, because who knows what ideas will suddenly interest me in a month, a year, or more. (Though not a week, as I just finished a novella.) But it seems more likely to be something new than something old.

Ta, L.

(Bel is doing fine, btw. That's one herm who knows how to land on... well, not its feet in this case, but something better.)
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Does the Duchy of Orbas correspond to a specific real-world place? I have asssumed it to be vaguely based on the various Balkan countries, positioned as it is to the south of Cedonia, which appears to be based on Greece (in your inverted version of Europe). Do you have a more specific inspiration for Orbas? And ditto for the city of Vilnoc?
Lois McMaster Bujold This fantasy geography is inspired by but by no means identical to our-world, but I frequently use our world the way an artist uses reference photos, as a quick way of getting the proportions right. With that caution... Orbas would be in the western Balkans, on the Adriatic coast; Croatia roughly. (That "roughly" matters.)

Vilnoc follows more-or-less logically, drawn somewhat freehand and from what I've learned about assorted ancient and medieval Mediterranean cities.

Ta, L.
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Happy Birthday, Lois. Thank you for all your wonderful stories and characters that have become like friends and family to us. We all hope this day will be full of joy. I have to finish this with a question mark, lol. There doesn't seem to be a box to just comment on?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you! I'm looking forward to a peaceful day of mild self-indulgence, topped by dinner with a friend. Well, and some laundry.

Indeed, the Q&A column is designed for questions only; comments and discussion generally go either below blog posts or below questions, or, if private, sent through the Goodreads messaging system.

bests, Lois.
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Happy birthday! (Is this the place to post that?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Works as well as any. Thanks! I've had a nice restful day.

Ta, L.
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Going through "The Curse of Chalion" again, (every time is a comfort & a pleasure) and the question occurred to me: On Cazaril's eventual death, which God will take him up? The Lady or the Bastard seem prime candidates, but I think the other Gods also have reason to lay claim. Is it wrong to picture a family squabble on the other side of reality? As you are Their voices in our world, I'd love to hear your thoughts
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Daughter of Spring has first dibs. (The Father yields regretfully.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes: Cordelia thought it was just fine, as long as due emotional care was taken; Aral fretted, and had to be Betanly reassured. Which made him roll his eyes -- Betans! -- and then calm down. Which was Cordelia's intent.

(I observe that Betans' long lives would tend to make them less finicky about age differences than our current oddly obsessed fashion is.)

And Jole was quite thoroughly a grownup himself by that point, late 20s. A senior lieutenant considered responsible enough to be put in operational charge of weaponry that could devastate a planet, as his prior post's duties included, can probably be trusted run his own personal life. (And the romancing was mutual, if cautious, like two porcupines trying to date.)

Note that Aral was out of the military at that point, a civilian, so did not think of Jole being his subordinate in the same sense as when he was Regent and commander-in-chief. This got upwhacked during the Hegen Hub crisis, of course, in all kinds of interesting ways that Miles didn't see. Very politically dicey period, in ways that totally eclipsed any personal concerns; Aral's worst nightmares coming in waves.

Ta, L.
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Happy natal day! I hope your insomnia situation has improved. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

Ta, L.
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Hello! I'm reading the Penric and Desdemona stories and now have to track down the newer ones in ebook form - my library doesn't have them. Are there any non-Amazon/Nook/Apple options for them?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, those are our only three platforms for ebooks. Given their free apps, they should be available for whatever device you are reading this on, though Nook does not distribute outside N. America. The Blackstone audio editions, however, appear more widely, including in some libraries.

The two, eventually three, Penric collections are also available in the Baen e-bookstore, as a limited exclusive, and I think they do a few more formats. It will be a while till Baen can work around to the newer titles in a collection, though, because Subterranean Press has first dibs for their signed limited editions. (Penric's Labors is tentatively projected for paper publication in December of 2022.)

Ta, L.
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If someone wanted to send you a book for you to sign is there a way that it could be done?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't do that anymore, for a bunch of practical reasons, including not wanting to drag myself to the post office or shipping store, and not least the chances of parcels being lost en route.

HowEVER, Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore or Dreamhaven Books & Comics here in Minneapolis can sell and ship signed new books, personalized by request. No added charge or delay for the sigs, though there might be a bit of a wait on personalizations. (Which means folks thinking of Christmas right now (this is Nov. 14th) may want to build in lead-time.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Huh. I can't find that word-string in either my master file or in my Kindle edition, and thus can't find the passage that puzzles you. Check for a misquote?

Wait, found it. "It's the haut way, is it not?" No, there is nothing missing or mislaid in that passage. Definitely no unauthorized edits, though you may be missing nuance. The haut are big on nuance, and Miles is still young.

You'll have to rephrase your question; I can't make out what you are asking as it stands.

Ta, L.
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Have you noticed? If you have read some of the "Rivers of London" series by Aaronovitch, you are aware that there really are multiple hidden rivers under London. They were once open rivers which have been built over or assigned to underground culverts. *Discover Magazine*, November/December 2021 issue, has an article by Natasha Khullar Relph, which explains how the city is bringing them back above ground again.
Lois McMaster Bujold London isn't the only old European city to have this -- Zagreb is another -- but cool about the article.

Ta, L.
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I was reading a thread (https://bit.ly/3FKJuMs) on how it was once considered prestigious for women in China to spend their entire lives - or as much time as possible - in decorated, raised canopy beds, and instantly thought back to float-chairs. The described attitude towards them especially seemed similar, as did one of the stories about the practice related in the post. Was this tradition an inspiration?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, actually. I was however thinking of the other ancient Japanese/Asian tradition of (upper class, natch) women only speaking to people from behind screens.

(The nonfiction book The World of the Shining Prince is a good guide to Heian Japan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... and an enlightening read-along or read-before if you want to tackle The Tale of Genji.)

Ta, L.
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Is Baen going to publish more of Penric stories? I have both Penric's Travels and Penric's Progress. I want the rest of them. Of course, I read them all on kindle first, but I really would like printed books.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen will be publishing a third paper volume of the next 3 Penric novellas in late 2022 or early 2023, to be titled Penric's Labors. It will include "Masquerade in Lodi", "The Orphans of Raspay", and "The Physicians of Vilnoc".

Ta, L.
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Wondering about employment of the Koudelka girls. Obviously not necessary for the story to tell us, but I don't recall any info about jobs for Delia or Olivia. I feel like paying jobs for females would have been discouraged by class issues in old Barrayar, but progressive leanings would have encouraged employment. Would you satisfy my curiousity?
Lois McMaster Bujold
What they were doing before their marriages I don't know, but after, Olivia would have had a full-time job as Countess Vorrutyer, and Delia, who could be an understudy for Alys by temperament, also would become a political hostess/mover-and-shaker.

Miles does remark somewhere that a countess is in effect an assistant count, though the role is rather freeform, even more so now post-uterine-replicator technology -- counts wear a lot of hats in terms of their duties, and have to delegate if they are to do right by their Districts.

Ta, L.
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It may be worth noting that Goodreads recently changed their default messaging settings. Members can no longer direct message authors unless you change your 'Who Can Send Me Private Messages' setting to 'anyone'. I noticed you recommended this form of contact to readers seeking to send fanmail, so I thought you might prefer to keep that option available. Much love! https://www.goodreads.com/user/edit?tab=settings
Lois McMaster Bujold
Aha, I did not know that. Change made. Thanks!

I consider Goodreads to be my public PR face, not a private one, not that anything is truly private on the internet. I'll have to see if this change puts me in the way of more spam. GR is pretty good about keeping that out.

Ta, L.
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Merrian Oliver-Weymouth‘a collection of pictures “Barrayar Dreaming” has Olivia publishing a splendid collection of Time of Isolation doorways. I think you noticed them some years ago! Are those pictures a good addition to the saga? https://www.pinterest.co.uk/merriank/barrayar-dreaming/
Lois McMaster Bujold
Fanac is for the fans, and it takes so many new (well, not so new by now) forms on the internet, but yes, those were quite fun to see.

Ta, L.
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I get the distinct feeling that Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen is closing the circle, back on what is now Sergyar… and that make me sad. Such wonderful people the Vorkosigans, their friends and (most) of their relations. It’s lovely spending time with them. Thank you. Goodreads want a ? mark so here it is.
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome!

Though if it would make you feel less sad to think of the recursion as an opening spiral rather than a closed circle, feel free...

Ta, L.
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I like that thought. Yes. I guess that’s why rereading is so satisfying 😊 Obligatory ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hm, this is probably a comment on a prior question. Understandable in this instance, though.

Note that Goodreads separates questions, often randomly, so if you want something to appear with whatever it is commenting upon instead of bobbing around loose and mysterious, it needs to go down in the comments section of the answer given.

Ta, L.
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Just finished rereading "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen." Thank you for such an interesting and fitting coda/prolog. Your characters are so real I actually looked up when it was published and thought, "2015. Aurelia must be 7 or 8. I wonder if all the others are here yet? No wait---fictional characters." Either way, I hope they and you are doing well.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

JG&RQ has had quite a bifurcated reception, by my standards, depending on what preconceptions given readers approached it with. It's always nice to hear from someone who gets my intended "study of grief and recovery as changed by science fiction bio-technology".

Ta, L.
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Have you ever considered writing a Five Worlds piece from the viewpoint of the gods?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Interesting idea, though I'm afraid the 5's minds are much too large to encompass. They're not like the Greek or Norse or even Chinese gods, humans writ large; they are genuinely ineffable, alien even though profoundly part of the world. The visions characters occasionally have of them are human-sized-and-seeming just because that's all the human mind can encompass, like a millimeter leak from a municipal water tower. (Or more accurately as a millimeter leak as experienced from inside a submarine.) Which is also why every vision is subtly different, each shaped by the shape of the mind receiving it. Of all the visions that have turned up in the stories so far, Cazaril's of the Daughter at the end of Chalion came the closest to seeing a god entire, and that nearly broke him, and certainly effected permanent changes in and upon him. A little bit joyously mad thereafter, and inclined to emitting William-Blake-level poetry at random times. (Saint Umegat would make a whole 'nother study.)

Ta, L
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Hi there! I am looking to get into your work. I have The Curse of Chalion in my bookshelf, ready for me to dig in. But I thought I would ask you, the author, a question: "Which book written by you would you recommend for a first-timer?" It can be a personal favorite, it can be a book you feel is your best work, or a book that represents your oeuvre?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Welcome!

That answer will vary depending on the tastes and interests of the reader. The Curse of Chalion is my usual starter-rec for fantasy readers, so you're good to go there. Dive in.

The science fiction side is trickier. If you like to read your series in strict order, Shards of Honor is first in the Vorkosigan series in chronological, publication, and writing order, and also my first novel. If you prefer a young male protagonist, The Warrior's Apprentice, another early and early-series book, also works, or The Borders of Infinity novella collection for a sampler platter, though I really feel that would work better after tWA.

Start the recent Penric & Desdemona novella series with the e-novella "Penric's Demon" or its first paper collection Penric's Progress.

Note that while The Hallowed Hunt is set in the same fantasy world, it does not follow on from the first two, Chalion and its direct sequel Paladin of Souls but is rather a stand-alone set 200 years earlier in another realm and with a completely different cast of characters. If you know that going in, you won't waste time flailing around either waiting for it to turn into a continuation or peeved that it doesn't. It does lay in some worldbuilding useful for the later "Penric and the Shaman" novella.

Happy reading!

L.

-- As always, my compete reading-order guide is here:

https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...
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I have been re-reading Penric's Demon and just noticed this sentence: "Sorcerer had certainly not been on Pen's former list of scholarly ambitions, but then, neither had theologian, divine, physician, teacher, lawyer or any other high trade . . ." Then I noticed that with the possible exception of lawyer, Pen has now studied/become all of the above. Did you realize this when you first invented Penric and Des?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not consciously. But I was pleased by the serendipity, when I noticed it.

Divine and therefore theologian does follow in lockstep to becoming a trained Temple sorcerer. Physician was a less-standard bonus. Pen will likely duck lawyering.

The original term "doctor", which dates back to the medieval university system, actually means "teacher", not "physician". (No one will have noticed that I never use the term doctor for 5GU medicos.) A doctorate was actually a license to teach in any Church-accredited institution throughout Europe. An oath-sworn Temple divine has something of the same status, someone to be trusted with teaching.

Ta, L.
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Reading a Civil Campaign led me to become a devout Sayers, Austen, and Heyer fan, although I'm just now getting around to reading the Brontës. I just finished Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and was struck by its similarity to Ekaterin and Miles' story. Was that work an influence?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've actually read very little Bronte (just Jane Eyre) and not that one, so no, it wasn't an influence. Ekaterin and Miles's tale came from a wide range of seeds, including real life experiences that won't be available to people tracking literary sources. But Heyer, Sayers, Austen, and Shakespeare are also all in the work's family tree somewhere, to be sure, in the oblique way that such a piled-up compost heap of ideas work out.

Ta, L..
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How do you keep track of details concerning what you have already written when writing a series? I'm writing the fourth book in a universe (a side story to the main trilogy) and I want to know the best way to keep track so I stay relatively consistent.
Lois McMaster Bujold Writers have all kinds of systems, variously elaborate. I don't have much. By the time I've written a book, I've read it over so many times it's nearly ingrained, although I notice that now that I have a longer past, more early work is fading out. If it's written and published, I can look it up in the story, or nowadays search text if the question lends itself to keywords. In a pinch, I can ask my fans on my blog or chat list if anyone remembers the detail in question, on the confident theory that among them all, someone will have reread it more recently than I have.

Anything not published can be changed, or changed around, to fit the current story's needs. It's seldom wrong to have a better idea, if it can be sneaked in. So no, I don't have a 30-volume Encyclopedia Barrayarica secreted in my garage, slowly molding. I made it up once; I can make it up, or at least boot it up, again, although my innate laziness prefers not to if looking it up is easier. I do sometimes reread when working out a new story, to prime the pump and refill the well.

Rereads also come in the way of business when a new edition needs proofread, an exercise of incredible tedium that I have had occasion to regret skipping, so there's that periodic reinforcement. (A subset of Don't Trust Anyone.)

Now, I've regretted my lack of system more than once, particularly as the lists of made-up names grow unwieldy. And proper publishers like to have written lists of all the neologisms and usages for their copy editors to refer to, so keeping one as you go along, saving devising it later in a hurry, is a good idea. Also speaking from experiences to be avoided.

"When in doubt, check it" usually works. Problem comes when one is not in doubt but nonetheless wrong, oops.

Good luck!

Ta, L.
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Thanks so much for these recommendations! I devoured the entire World of the Five Gods and The Spirit Ring! Thanks for the stories! Any authors you’d recommend now that I’ve read all of yours??
Lois McMaster Bujold
I usually toss in Ben Aaronovitch and Megan Whalen Turner when asked this, for recent writers, though really neither are that recent anymore. If you look at the top of this page for my "My Books", there are reviews of quite a lot of things I've read since taking up Goodreads, some recced, some not. I don't review everything I read, and I don't review anything I don't finish or don't like (much the same, these days) and I usually only cover the first of a series.

I presume you've found my other two series, the Vorkosigan Saga and The Sharing Knife tetralogy?

Ta, L.
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A public service announcement again... ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Please do not use the Author Q&A feature to try to ask private questions. They cannot be answered privately.

Use the Goodreads private messaging system instead -- that's what it's for. To be found under the little envelope icon, I believe. I have recently reset (I hope) my GR email to public instead of limited to GR-accepted friends, so any GR member should be able to use it. In theory. Unless I'm misunderstanding the system, which happens.

(If the questioner has not also set their GR email to public, or possibly been friended by/friended me, not sure, I can't message them in reply either.)

Anyone who actually has used the system is invited to chime in down in the comments to explain how in more detail. The method is non-obvious, unfortunately.

Ta, L.
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This isn't a question, but I haven't been able to get the system to send you a message any other way? My dad loved your books, but we especially enjoyed Curse of Chalion. Sadly he died in 2019 from mesothelioma. Which is when I discovered that the memorial ribbons for all lung cancers are white or cream. My mom and I are now planning a Bastard's Day ribbon for this year. Thank you! Alexa
Lois McMaster Bujold I am sorry for you loss. And yeah, cancer surely qualifies as a Bastard's chaotic curse, almost literally. I'm glad you find something in my work that supports you.

(The Goodreads messging system, to be found under the little envelope icon at the top right of one's screen, is the best way to send me private messages here. Again, if someone wants to chime in down in the comments with exact instruction on how, please do, because GR certainly does not make it obvious.)

Ta, L.
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Have you considered doing any books about the General or the Admiral from the Vor series? The stories about the General, Miles Grandfather, really are something that I would have loved to see. Or anything else in that series coming down the pipe? Love your stories. So thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold That's a frequently asked question, but no. At least not at this time.

Nothing in the pipeline at the moment -- I've been slacking this winter. Or at least re-Covid-sheltering with, at my fingertips, a million Amazon insta-large-print ebooks, most of which I don't want to read, and ten million hours of streaming media, most of which I do not want to watch. It's certainly a post-scarcity world with respect to entertainment. I'd long noticed that information wealth was non-Malthusian, and now it's demonstrated. Brave new world.

Out of all that, I'm glad you have found and like my tales!

Ta, L.
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If you were writing the Vorkosigan books for the first time in 2022, do you think you'd still choose to refer to hermaphrodites like Bel Thorne as "it" or would you use "they/them" instead? If so, have you thought about maybe doing an updated edition of the books to reflect this? I think the use of "it" is a bit jarring to modern readers.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, my tale first tripped (literally) over Bel in 1983, supposed to have been a throw-away bit of world-building, scene setting not a speaking or an ongoing character. If I had known, etc. I most regret the use of "it" then because the pronoun would have been far more useful later when my genuinely sexless ba came onto the scene.

The English language is desperately in need of an unambiguous gender-neutral singular pronoun, and if science fiction as a genre had picked one ("zie" ferex), instead fielding a competing dozen, and agreed upon it decades ago as common coin, it might have leaked into the wider culture by now and the problem would be solved, sigh. If I'd given Bel a different pronoun, it would have been one of these or one of my own coinage, certainly not the repurposed plural.

Updating is a problem with multiple pitfalls. First of course is that "current standards" are a moving target that change about every ten or even five years. Any writers engaging in reediting a large body of work to keep up would soon find themselves doing nothing else.

A subtler problem is that, in a very real sense, those long-ago books were written by someone else. Not only am I a different person mentally by now, in 20 years, they say, even one's bones completely replace themselves. To what extent should I have a right to alter that other person's words, to retcon the past, to photoshop that snapshot of history?

Which also leads me to the musing of whether a story is more like an artifact or a person, a philosophical question that would require a lot more tea than I've drunk yet this morning to address.

Ta, L.

(Betan herms, I should probably say again, are not intersexed. They are an artificially bioengineered future sex that does not exist on Earth today. I suspect this fine point of biology slips past many readers.)
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My little foster kid (age 11) is really enjoying "Curse of Chalion." He's not quite half-way through the book yet, but he really wants to know: is there any chance of a movie or series based on it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The work would have to be licensed by a media production company, one that has the money, know-how, and clout to make such. (I'd love a mini-series for any of my books; feature-length movies have to leave too much out.) It's very much a buyer's market, however, since books are many and media producers are few.

No media company has offered for it yet. Such an event is not ruled out, but it's not up to me.

Congrats on having a very bright young reader!

Ta, L.
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I feel hesitant to criticize you, given how much the critical thinking, thoughtful commentary and philosophizing in your writings have informed, enriched and molded my character over the years. But would it be possible for you to add some book tags (i.e. manga, fantasy, contemporary, urban fantasy, YA, etc.) to your reviews here on Goodreads to make it easier for us to search for our next read using your reviews?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've not used tags before, and am uncertain of their protocols, but I expect it's time to continue my laggard foray into the 21st C. and learn how to do so... sometime...

Ta, L. (Reflecting that knowing how to saddle and bridle a horse doesn't count for much on the computer.)
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I am a hige fan of the Vorkosigan saga. I love the main characters. But lately, I have developped a soft spot for By. Rereading Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, I began wondering did Richars have anything to do with the rumours By's father believed about him and his sister - either directly or indirectly. And if yes, what was that done in retaliation for? Thanks! 🙂
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm very fond of By myself.

By's father suffered from being Ges Vorrutyer's younger brother, and was likely molested and certainly tormented by him in various proto-nasty ways when young. This more than anything predisposed him to be suspicious of older brothers, with knock-on effects on poor By. I don't think it would have needed Richars's input, though the latter is not ruled out. (Neither is it made up at this time.)

Ta, L.
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I am told that a good writer must be willing to put characters he/she loves in danger and even let them die for the sake of the story. You have killed off a number of likeable characters in the Vorkosigan series. How hard was that for you? I am being vague to avoid any spoilers, but in general, was it hard?
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh. That's one of those many pernicious "writing rules" that aren't. Pat Wrede in her excellent writing blog has a number of tart things to say about dictums of that ilk. https://pcwrede.com/blog/ "In danger" is more of a moving target. The character needs a problem that strongly matters, but it need not be life-threatening to do so. (See "Knot of Shadows" ferex.)

That said, when such a death was integral the story, it was the story, and I don't argue with the story... well, I don't win, anyway. Two disparate examples (spoilers follow):

My generation of what became The Warrior's Apprentice actually began with a vision of the death of Bothari, under rather different circumstances than what finally evolved, but that was inherent from the get-go. I'm not sure to what extent he qualifies as "likeable", to be sure. The death of Teidez in The Curse of Chalion was likewise baked into the plot from the beginning.

The death of Aral was something I'd edged up to, and avoided, for years, and it finally took an entire book to get its thematic and emotional work done, both for me and for Miles. That one was likely the hardest.

I recall one review, years ago, where the reviewer complained that he "wasn't going to take my work seriously" unless I killed off Ivan. I decided that was his problem, not mine. Violence is not the only kind of action, and mortal stakes are not the only ones that matter. As always, in writing as in life "It Depends."

Ta, L.
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Do you have any head-canon about traditional Barrayaran wedding ceremonies not mentioned in any of your books that you would be willing to share? My partner and I both really love the Vorkosigan series, and are thinking about including a reference to it in our own wedding ceremony!
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, not really. The books have shown a pretty good range of them, from the least formal (Ivan) to the most (Gregor.) I don't especially recommend either end for emulation...

You should please, first of all, yourselves, then family & guests q.s. (Q.s. is a Latin abbreviation used in pharmacy meaning "as much as is sufficient; enough."

Good luck!

L.
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I've read everything you have published and loved it all, but stories of Miles in action are still my favorite, and I wonder if there will be more of those?
Lois McMaster Bujold A frequently asked question: frequent answer, nothing is planned at this time.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, fans can and do make up whatever they want to fill in the blanks, but I see the relationship progressing slowly from the traumas after the Pretender's War, through to increasing mutual respect as they each grow into their new jobs, to secret hopeless silent but not mutually unaware pining in the later years. To, with the chip removal and Simon's retirement, the glorious freedom that we see glimpses of thereafter in the books. So: not realization, but opportunity at last.

Ta, L.
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Perhaps I've missed something fairly recently, but will there be a 3rd Penric omnibus soon? And is the signed Subterranean Press edition of "Assassins" the only one likely to come out? I much prefer printed media to e-books. Thanks in advance!
Lois McMaster Bujold There will be a third Penric omnibus, Penric's Labors,, from Baen in November.

SubPress has a one-year exclusive term of license after publication for their editions (really quite short, by publishing standards) so there won't be anything else on paper soon.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois!I was in a bit of a funk so I reread Cordelia's Honor and caught a few things that I hadn't noticed before. I will have a separate post for each. #3 What exactly IS a flimsy? I keep thinking I have it figured out from context, but in Barrayar, Kly is carrying stuff in a flimsy (the snacks he gives to Gregor, the gum leaf). I can't imagine how the flimsy I had been imagining could be used as a container.
Lois McMaster Bujold
A flimsy is essentially plastic paper. So, folded over, holds things like any other envelope. I picture being able to put old flimsy sheets in some hopper in the flimsy printer to be melted down and re-sheeted for instant recycling.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois!I was in a bit of a funk so I reread Cordelia's Honor and caught a couple of things that I hadn't noticed before. I will have a separate post for each. #2 At the Council to confirm Aral's appointment as regent, it says all the counts are in scarlet and silver. Why not in their house colors as in all other Council of Counts gatherings?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You have a choice of two explanations: it was an early work and I hadn't worked out all the details yet, or it was special dress for certain sorts of Imperial ceremonies only.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois!I was in a bit of a funk so I reread Cordelia's Honor and caught a couple of things that I hadn't noticed before. I will have a separate post for each. #1. At Ezar's deathbed, Ezar refers to the massacre where Aral's 'mother and uncle' were killed. I thought it was Aral's older brother. We never heard anything else about an uncle. Was this just a slip of the pen?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Early work, and I don't remember what all I intended. I suppose there could have been an uncle on one side or the other also caught up in the general deadly sweep, possibly Padma's father i.e. Sonia's husband. It was an extended family gathering, after all, plus the death squads struck elsewhere at the same time. Final version is mother, brother, and sister there at the time for sure.

Ta, L.
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Good morning, Lois! This cold and mundane week has been made much better by incursions into the Vorkosiverse for me :) I started wondering about the city of Vorbarr Sultana. Do you know of any map you that is reasonably accurate? If not, I could perhaps make one from https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Vorbarr_Sultana. How long to walk between ImpSec, ImpMil, the Residence, Vorhartung, Vorkosigan House? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, sorry, no maps except the fading pictures in my head and whatever you can construe from textev. I'm sure if you made one, the Vorkosigan fan wiki would be glad to post it...

Ta, L.
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In nearly all your books, you use only a single Point of View character, and generally I really love your close third person style. Recently, though, I was rereading The Warrior's Apprentice, and it occurred to me that Elena has a huge personal story that we don't get to see much of. Did you ever consider using a dual POV for this book, or otherwise consider letting us see the world through Elena's eyes?
Lois McMaster Bujold
WA, only my 2nd novel written, pretty much presented itself through Miles's eyes from the get-go. (My first venture into multiple viewpoint was Falling Free, written 4th.) So, no; though if readers find themselves thinking about the other characters' viewpoints, it's a good sign they're getting through the single-viewpoint character's filters (in some cases, blinders) well. I didn't experiment with dual viewpoint till irrc my 10th novel, The Spirit Ring.

Ta, L.
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Hi Louis. Typos in Knot of Shadows at page 50 of 111, 44%, when Penric meets Learned Retaka: "Olive Street was marginally less crooked and narrow than its surrounding streets, alleys… passages. The dwellings on this southwest side were much cut-up by time and their residents, many to overcrowded chambers for, if not poor, working men and women and their families." Enjoyed it, as ever. Hope this helps?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not seeing the typo here...

?

L.
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Hello again! I have a question about Ivan. I seem to recall reading somewhere that your characters had quite decided personalities and so writing with them was an adventure, not always what you expected. Did you always know that Ivan was quite bright, even when he seemed to be Ivan-you-idiot? Or did he grow into that as he matured? I liked him very much by the later books, but not as much in the beginning. TY :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ivan always had capacity, but he really was pretty feckless and thoughtless as a youngster and teen. He earned his moniker through a string of boneheaded gaffes, misadventures, and remarks, not recounted. (Nor made up by me in detail, so don't ask, but his nearest and dearest witnessed and remembered, to his later annoyance.) But, like the more fortunate among us, he survived and learned better over time. By 25, he was much improved, and by 35 hardly off-putting at all.

He also, of course, grew in the writing, as did all the ongoing series characters. When he first stumbled onto my page in 1984 in my second-ever book (WA) he was mainly a foil for Miles, though already with his own voice. When the chance to reuse him came up in my fifth, Brothers in Arms he had not only the in-story time but also the page space to develop.

Ta, L.
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Part 1 of another couple of questions from me … split into two because of the space limitation. Up to the end of CVA, there are a few hints that Alys and Simon *might* consider getting married at some point. I would love to know more about what they are thinking. Also, other characters speculate about them using the replicator to have biological kid(s) of their own, but Simon and Alys never seem to mention it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In order to answer this question and the following -- which is going to get separated btw -- I would have to stop and make stuff up. Which I am disinclined to do just at the moment. Perfectly reasonable question, mind, and I'm pleased that the characters seem real enough to you that you're still thinking about them after the book is closed, but working through the many possibilities seems more a task for the ficcers, who routinely work in multiverses.

Ta, L.
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(Part 2) Now, huge caveat here – I am just interested in how things are at the end of CVA. If it should happen that you are inspired to write more about them, events could come up could set a different direction (as it happens in real life). I am just asking here, what Simon and Alys are thinking/feeling at the end of CVA – not looking for predictions about the future. Hope that makes sense? Thank you so much!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Me making up what Simon and Alys are thinking at that point would be tantamount to committing to a future direction, I think. Many are the possibilities, and I'm not interested in either exploring or cutting them off just at the moment. So you're still free to imagine for yourself...

Ta, L.
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In one of the Sharing Knife books (Passage?) you mention that 4 cities mint their own currency. I count Tripoint (gold tridents), Graymouth (copper crays) and Silver Shoals (silver coins). What's the 4th?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No idea. Look on the map and see if there's another large city mentioned -- that would be the best bet. On a river, or in the more populated south. (Somewhere in the farmer-heavy south, not touched on in the tale, seems likely. The map only includes places named in the story, for reader orientation, not all possible places.)

There are also still old coins floating around from lost cities of the past.

Ta, L.
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What (and roughly where, in "our" world) are the 7 hinterlands in the Wide Green World? Oleana seems to be most of the midwest, Raintree further west (toward the Mississippi and south a ways); it's not clear where Seagate is though there's mention of snow-topped mountains, and it's not clear what hinterland Graymouth / New Moon etc. are in. I think of Luthlia as being Minnesota, perhaps up into the Dakotas / Manitoba.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I never worked out all seven, but Oleana centers on Ohio and surroundings, Raintree on western Indiana and Illinois to the Mississippi, Seagate is New England (which does have snow-topped mountains) and eastern-seaboard Canada, Luthlia indeed Minnesota and S. Canada. Not the Dakotas, they're too far west and still recovering from the Big Blight. The south presumably has a name or two for its regions (which would include Graymouth.) I don't believe I ever named all the hinterlands -- it's useful to leave some things undefined to give space for future tales.

The larger map included in the books is as good as it gets for defined geography, though I rearranged it freely when I needed to. The Hardboil was the Tennessee River, roughly, though it's been a while.

Ta, L.
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One of my favorite things about Barrayar (the book) is how Aral maintains personal moral integrity in a situation where there is no "good", just "really bad" and "slightly less bad". I am interested in Aral's time as Regent during the Komarr Revolt, and how he maintains his own moral center through a nihilist conflict; also, since I'm wishing, one day I hope you can finish the sequel to Falling Free?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes; part of the exploration of the series is how to carry on somehow when your world and your history hands you nothing but bad choices. Triage all the way down. (And I expect Aral is not nearly as admiring of his moral center as some outside observers, as he knows just how much of a bloody mess it really is in this triage tent.)

Falling Free is a spaceship that has sailed, I'm afraid. Diplomatic Immunity allowed me to get in some closure for the tale, though, a century or two late.

Ta, L.
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For years I kept a journal and added quotes from your books that resonated with me. I don't know which book two quotes came from: #1 “The list went on and on. There was not telling, she said, what she would be next. And I thought “I want to be like that. I want to be like her. Not just one thing, but a world of possibilities. I want to find out who else I can be.” Maybe Memory? Do I have the quote right?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think that was Elena, when she was explaining opting out of the Dendarii mercenaries to Miles; so somewhere in the first few chapters of Memory. Unless it was Kareen somewhere -- both young women were certainly infuenced by Cordelia.

Ta, L.
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For years I kept a journal and added quotes from your books that resonated with me. I don't know which book two came from: #2 - This one has been almost a mantra for me … and one of the reasons I started a Ph.D. in 2000 at age 50. Miles’ mother: "I want something(s) to look forward to so the decaying body is ignored in the excitement of the other.” Is that right? (First showed up in one of my journals before 2001.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't think that quote is one of mine... I can endorse the sentiment, though!

Ta, L. (About your same age, apparently.)
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Apologies Lois: a miserable failure on trying to be helpful! I thought the ellipses at the end of the first sentence were odd - maybe a missing word? - and had difficulty with the second sentence but, if you're happy, then that's OK. Thanks for the polite reply to my misguided efforts.
Lois McMaster Bujold Original question was here, for the confused: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/2...

(It's always best to put comments on a question in its attendant comment space, or they'll be separated.)

The ellipsis was, as is usual in my and much fiction, and indicator of a trailing off without completion, or a pause in either a speaker's speech or thought-stream, so I don't have to keep putting the clarifying interruptions in stage business -- "Yadda, hadda," he hesitated, "yadda." The hesitations can be for lots of reasons, usually for the speaker/thinker to select the right word, sometimes to read the room, other things in context.

In formal essay and report writing, ellipses are also used to indicate words edited out of material in a quotation -- Yadda yadda ... yadda. Where the missing bits can be either a few words or many sentences.

The first use is more in the nature of a stage direction. The second use is scholarly etiquette. If you've been trained in essay writing, it might be easy to conflate or confuse the two very different functions of this handy punctuation device.

As another general rule of how people read, if something in the writing has confused or discombobulated readers, they are more likely to stumble over whatever comes next, being already dizzied -- even if it's perfectly fine, because their flow-of-attention will be divided between that and whatever they're still chewing over. Sort of a knock-on effect. Which also happens at more macro levels than just sentences, alas.

Ta, L.
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You have in the past mentioned that you often decide the theme of a book by asking yourself, what is the worst possible thing I can do to my main character and how will they react. I can see that in your writing but it also seems to me that an underlying theme of most of your books is that damaged people are drawn to damaged people. Or might it be rather that damage people might be more interesting to write?
Lois McMaster Bujold Technically, the "worst possible thing" would pertain to the plot, not the theme. The theme is an emergent property of the story as a whole, an after-the-fact perception. But anyway.

I've tried to correct this misquote/misunderstanding before, but never seem to catch up. What I was trying to get at in the original exchange was that what happens in a story is most satisfactory for me when it most deeply reveals a character's character. It's not meant to be an invitation to authorial sadism. So it would be much better expressed as "What is the most revealing thing I can do to my character/s?"

I actually think that almost all real people are damaged, merely some less visibly than others. It accumulates with age and experience. So I fondly imagine that I'm just writing about people being people. The damage comes along for the ride.

(There was a particularly wonderful line from Good Omens on that subject: "... most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people." )

Ta, L.
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So rereading Penric and the Fox, the first scene kinda of made me think about Memory and Miles ans Simon fishing scene... and it made me wonder about it. Fishing for these two set of characters seemed to be the perfect excuse to drink cold alcoholic beverage under the sun. I've never fished in my life so I have no clue, but I wondered where it comes from ? Personnal experience, inside joke, writer's licence?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I've done very little fishing myself, and no drinking along-with, but I know many people do. Fishing is big here in Minnesota, in all weathers. A painter I once had joked, "I don't have to go ice fishing -- my wife lets me drink at home!"

But any occasion where characters can sit down together makes a good setting for story-advancing dialogue, from meals to being trapped on a boat.

Ta, L.
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Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter”? Or somewhere in between? I find that even if I have a good idea of where I am going with a scene (or the book), the characters tend to run off and do things I hadn’t had in mind…
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've answered this before at greater length, somewhere, if you scroll back through the pile, but I'm in-between. I do a lot of general note taking, and pushing ideas around on paper to see if they'll fit, before I start writing, but it's as much a memory aid as anything. I then narrow down on scenes, my basic work unit, and outline each one quite a bit before I sit down and write it out, sometimes mutating as it goes. Then lather, rinse, repeat with the next scenes in a chain. I don't outline in detail in advance; future developments fade off into obscurity pretty quickly, until I work my way closer.

I have more problems with characters sitting down and not moving than with them running off.

When I'm writing anything at all, that is.

Ta, L.
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Why are official meetings of Gregor and the full roster of counts at Vorhartung castle and not some non-family associated location (such as a capital or even Vorbarra palace)? Also, do any Vorhartungs still exist?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't know if any Vorhartungs still exist or not. Anyway, the Castle is Imperial property and has been for quite some time, probably since some war in the Bloody Centuries. The name just lingers, the way such do.

Ta, L.
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Does the Cetagandan Empire generically engineer the commoners directly with injections/treatments, use trickle down genetics like a ghem trophy wife/husband or are they totally ignored? I’d think they watched and at the very least gave them resistance to illness
Lois McMaster Bujold
Textev never says outright, but the facts of their shown tech level implies they are certainly not below galactic standard in health care including basic genetic tweaking against gene-based disorders or deficits; and for those who use replicators, any fresh mutational accidents that happen during the chromosome do-si-do of fertilization as well. Cosmetic changes, hm. Basic ones probably allowed, but there might be a borderline at which such measures might start to impinge on the haut monopoly of the superpersons project. The haut would always stay a couple of generations ahead in any case.

Advanced tech levels pretty much have to be supported bottom-up, even if partially directed top-down, just to have the necessary educated people to do All. That. Work. At which point such persons will also be taking care of themselves and their own. The average Cetagandans probably find their 8 planets pretty nice places to live, and brush up against the secretive haut very seldom. The ghem would be more visible.

Real population sizes not addressed, but nowhere is as dense as Old Earth yet. Then or now.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Spring is flirting with us here, but it's often bait 'n switch -- April snowstorms are not uncommon.

I have no information on Galeni's mom, sorry. Possibilities range from her dying young, to still being around but estranged, by politics or just by distance or remarriage and/or emotional withdrawal from the old pain of her first marriage and all it brought with it. Or just by physical distance, of which there is a lot. People do grow away from each other -- here on Old Earth, emigration often meant never expecting to see one's birth family again in one's lifetime, and galactic travel times are not unlike old sea ones.

Ta, L.
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For you - and for your readers: recommendations for books / series that are readable and rereadable and rereadable? Your books (all 3 major universes) are my go-to comfort reading; I'm certain I've read everything at least 3 times, some a dozen or more.
Lois McMaster Bujold This one looks as if it would be best answered in the comments, since it already covers my work. Go for it, folks...

Curiously, I find my reread pile goes in and out of fashion for me; things I thought I'd never tire of go stale, others rise to the surface again after years. Best shorthand I can think of for this effect is that my psychological needs change over time, as do, sometimes, the reasons I reread what turns out to be no longer quite the same book.

I'm glad my work holds up for you. Judging from reviews the book of mine that most changes its effect on subsequent readings is The Hallowed Hunt; possibly because readers stop fighting preconceptions created by other books in the series and the expectations of the genre generally, and start to take it on its own terms.

Ta, L.
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Do the Cetagandans have a "commoner" class? The haut and the ghem are featured, but unlike Barrayar, there's no mention of any kind of commoner / grubber / prole worker class.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Vast cities are described; who do you think lives there?! Not to mention who built all that. And does all the other everyday work that keeps a high-tech society running, much of which is not very high-tech.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." Turning that around, evidence galore should surely be evidence of presence, even if not many get speaking parts in the highly focused story you see.

Bemused, L.
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I'm pretty early into the Vorkosigan Companion, and enjoying it very much. It's a bit like chatting with you, a cup of tea (or stronger beverage) at hand. Thanks for sharing things like what books have inspired you, and your enjoyment of Tom Lehrer! Random question - did you read books by John Wyndham? You don't mention them, so perhaps they weren't enjoyable to you. I would ask if I could, so I thought I would..
Lois McMaster Bujold If I read any Wyndham, it's so long ago I don't remember it; so, not an author on my radar, pro or con.

Ta, L.
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Love Your latest series of book, world of 5 gods. Going back and reading he orld of the Five Gods and keeping up with World of the Five Gods : Penric & Desdemona. You write so well. I wish I could write as well as you. Does your editor and friends help you as you write a book or when you finish? I have written a couple of books but that is far as it goes since I keep slipping into present tense from past tense.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have an old and close circle of friends with whom I still trade test-reads or critique of my work in progress, some writers, some just very good readers. I have had a long history of crit groups over the decades, changing as my needs or location has; it all pretty much goes by email nowadays, so geographical proximity is no longer an issue.

My indie-published works do not have a publisher or editor, it's all do-it-myself here in my semi-retirement. I figure if I don't know what I'm doing by now, it is probably Too Late. But my professional editors were very valuable to me in my earlier years, and helped build up the foundation I now rest upon.

A very good source for level-headed writing advice is Patricia C. Wrede's blog at https://pcwrede.com/blog/ Aspiring writers could start at the beginning and read it all, or use the search function to narrow in on topics of interest.

Her ebook Wrede on Writing has a more compact collection. (Pat's been one of that aforementioned circle since the mid 80s.)

Ta, L.
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Hello, I have a writing question about finding that balance between writing for yourself (e.g., the story you yourself would like to read); and considering or taking feedback about "what the public would want." Is there a creative vs. commercial dilemma? Or is it really more that THIS is the story that feels right, maybe people will like it, but if not, oh well. Just curious about how, or if, you balance these? TY
Lois McMaster Bujold
Art vs. Commerce is one of those balances that have varied over the years. It was my good luck that early in my career the stories I had a taste for, and those people would buy, had an identifiable overlap, so "finding my audience" wasn't insurmountable. What I found most pressing back then wasn't content, but the need for speed of production in pro publishing. Publishers wanted reliable writers who would deliver on time and regularly; a book a year or more.

By mid-career, I was more-or-less trusting my audience. From whom a writer had much LESS feedback at that time, therefore marginally less crazy-making. (Because reader response, over any very wide range of persons, is a contradictory cacophony. I was fortunate to learn this early on even without the internet.) And my editors were trusting both me and and their customers, so, while I certainly wanted to write things my publishers could sell, most of my pressure was internal and speed-related.

Pat Wrede, as usual, had a good line for it: if you write something you don't like thinking it's "for the market", and it doesn't sell, you will have wasted your time utterly; and it's worse if it does, because then people will just want more of what you didn't want to write in the first place.

Post-career, none of that applies anymore. I need only write what I like (not that I could ever do anything else) and sales, though nice, are mainly a way of keeping score. What's much harder now is finding any story idea that I like well enough to write at all, and that's enough different from the ever-larger pile of things I wrote before that I bore neither myself (critical) nor my readers.

Ta, L.
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Good morning, I have a Komarr question next! I just wanted to check if I am interpreting correctly that men have "Ser" in front of their names, like Mr or Sir (unless they are Dr). It seems that women have "madame" ? Such an interesting world building detail you included here. Just curious, if you have a chance to reply. Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, "ser" is meant as a minor middle-upper-middle-class honorific, roughly equivalent to "mister". There could be a matching "sera", but Barrayarans would tend to revert to the more familiar French/British "madame".

I did recycle my "ser - sera" nomenclature to 5-gods Adria-Lodi, both it and Komarr being inspired by historical Venice.

Ta, L.
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I noticed awhile ago (based on the books that you were rating here) that you enjoy manga. After I recently started enjoying manga and anime myself, it occurred to me how fun it would be to watch Japanese-anime-style versions of some of your books. Is that an avenue that you have explored or are interested in exploring?
Lois McMaster Bujold
As with all media adaptations, It's Not Up To Me. An animation producer would have to make an offer.

Ta, L.
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As I would love to see your books made into anime, I created the Goodreads’ list “Titles You Most Wish Would be Made Into Anime” in the hope that if it gets enough voters, it might catch the attention of a decision-maker at a streaming service/anime studio. Would you share it with your followers so they can vote for your books? https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/175478.Titles_You_Most_Wish_Would_be_Made_Into_Anime
Lois McMaster Bujold
Such decisions are made by media producers -- the people with the money and, it must be observed, who undertake the financial risk as well as all the work -- not by fans, but here you go.

Ta, L.
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I just reread the four books plus story in your "Sharing Knives" world, and enjoyed them (again) so much! Do you think you might write any more in that series? I love all your work, it has provided me with so much happiness, thank you for writing! I reread your books often.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad you find my stories rereadable! It's a high compliment.

Nothing new is in progress at this time, nothing is ruled out.

Ta, L.
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Moments of Comfort and Revelation. Aral and Cordelia's reunion at the end of Shards. Miles' introspection in Memory. Harra’s adamantium like wisdom. Miles' letter to Kat in Civil Affair. Most of Cordelia's Betan chats with Aral, Miles and Mark. I just wanted to thank you for these while I had a chance. Question mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome!

L.
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When asked "what is your favorite series," I do have ones within genres, but none overall because it's apples and oranges to me. That said, "Vorkosigan Saga" is my favorite Sci-Fi series, and if pressed on a favorite author, your name is the one I give. I simply love your flavor of storytelling. Obligatory fanboying out of the way, do you have any advice on writing stories for us who are woefully inexperienced?
Lois McMaster Bujold
As always, my pointer for newbie writers is Pat Wrede's blog, and/or her ebook Wrede on Writing. Some of the most level-headed writing advice on the net, and covers, over time, a wide range of topics. (The search function is useful for netting particular interests.) https://pcwrede.com/blog/

Should keep you busy for a while.

Good luck -- L.
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Why isn’t Gregor named after his grandfather?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Naming is a default custom, not a law; people can and do vary it, for any number of reasons. I can think of lots that might have been the case here, as I expect you can too, but I haven't needed to settle on one.

Ta, L.
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Is there any other genre that you ever had a secret or not so secret yen to write in?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not really; SF and Fantasy are sort of universal receivers, that can absorb all other genre tropes. I have written several different genres even within the same series, and never really had to venture "outside" to explore.

Problems of how to professionally publish in more than one genre or even one subgenre are challenging in the market, due to the way "names" have to be built up to make minimally financially successful sales volumes. Writers who make a go of this need to be prolific (which I am not, especially) and/or to write under more than one name. (Though e-publishing tips over the old-school game board in interesting ways.)

Ta, L.
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Will the Knife Children ever be available in mass market paperback or in kobo ebook format? I desperately want to complete my series in one or both formats!
Lois McMaster Bujold
The novella is too short to publish in paperback by itself -- the Subterranean Press limited hardcover was about the only way to get it on paper without a few sibling stories to make up market weight. That edition is sold out at the publisher, but one can still get copies from Uncle Hugo's or Dreamhaven Books here in Minneapolis.

You can, of course, download the free Kindle app to most devices -- not sure about Nook and Apple Books.

Still no Kobo, sorry.

Ta, L.
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Did you come up with the line "I'll trade you one Mark for the Commodore's 18 million" before or after you named the character himself? It's always been one of my favourite lines in the series because of the coincidence & brilliance needed for it to work, so I've always wondered how much of a coincidence it really was. Either way, thank you for writing books with such awesome & quotable lines!
Lois McMaster Bujold
That was serendipity. I do not remember at what point I gave Cordelia's late dad his full name, from which Mark's (and Miles's) actually come, whether it was in BiA or earlier. (Well, Da Naismith's first name of course came much earlier, when Miles was named after him.) The unit of money was also named way earlier. Though if my belatedly seized inspiration looks like long-laid planning, so much the better.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I just wanted to comment that I recently happened upon your novels in the Sharing Knife series. I happened across a book store in the Keys and found an obscure (to me at the time) author and the set. I am so very glad that I picked up the works, as I only just finished the first novel in the series. I look forward to getting to know all the worlds you have built. ‘?’ (Required question mark ;)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm so glad you discovered my work! Also that you nabbed the whole set right off -- unlike my other more episodic series books, The Sharing Knife really is one story in 4 volumes, and needs to be read together like The Lord of the Rings.

Much more exploration awaits you. Be it noted, some of these things are not like the others, as I vary my style according to viewpoint and world.

Ta, L.
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Why, it seems, are so few of the famous SF authors not writing lately?
Lois McMaster Bujold
They're distracted by the internet? It takes a long time to get famous, and at that point, they're old and tired? People don't write as fast as you imagine? Your question is rhetorical, sure, but really, your guess is as good as mine.

There is certainly no shortage of new writers with new works, so I don't think you risk running out of books soon.

Although I do note, the sort of cutting edge and science speculation that only SF used to bring to isolated readers can now be found online in abundance with the real thing, real science doing amazing things that its practitioners are delighted to show you. Hard to compete with that, or even keep up.

Ta, L.

(Also, this: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )
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Hi, Lois! I just wanted to reach out to thank you so much for your amazing books. I read Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls back in high school, and I liked them, but I'm rereading them now as an adult and fully appreciating them in ways that are new. Thank you for writing books that stand the test of time. Curse of Chalion is magnificent and a breath of fresh air! Hope you don't mind me thanking in your questions?
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome!

It's always nice to hear that my books stand up to rereading.

Ta, L.
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I recently found myself with no new audio books to listen to, unusually, so I'm listening to Pen & Des again. I always find some details between works that I missed when there was a gap between them. Anyway, my question: are you working on any new story at the moment? I don't need to know what or when; I'd just like to know if I have something to look forward to at some point.
Lois McMaster Bujold
There have been no new story starts this past winter ('21 - '22), so, nothing in the pipeline soon. Breath holding contraindicated.

Ta, L.
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I run a book club on reddit where we read a different book of yours every month. This month we are reading your short stories collected in the anthologies Proto Zoa and Dreamweaver's Dilemma (DD). It's just been pointed out to me that there isn't an eBook version of the DD anthology, which means eBook readers have no way to read the story "The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment". Can you help in any way?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Afraid not, if you mean getting it into e-format.

The story referred to, for those who are wondering, was my last piece of fanfiction (Sherlock Holmes, in this case), written somewhat out of the blue in my late 20s. I now think of it as the baby writer trying to peck her way out of the egg, not breaking through yet.

When, in the mid 90s, the SF convention Boskone, at which I was writer guest-of-honor, was putting together their traditional souvenir book of unpublished or other oddments from their GoHs, I didn't have many pieces of unpublished work, as I had done very few short stories after I turned pro, and they'd all (eventually) sold except for that very first novelette, "Dreamweaver's Dilemma". Scraping the barrel, I found the typescript of that fan story, missing its last page, and added it just to help fluff up things.

DD also contains the short story contents of the later Proto Zoa, a few early essays, an introduction by Lillian Stewart Carl some of which I think later got recycled into The Vorkosigan Companion, and some material from the NESFA editors.

The NESFA Press edition of this is still available in trade paperback, with a few copies sloshing around the used market. https://www.amazon.com/Dreamweavers-D... or sometimes Uncle Hugo's can get signed copies.

I consider the fanfic piece to be juvenilia, not part of my early pro work, or I'd have included it in Proto Zoa.

Ta, L.
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Iroki is a wonderful character. Is there much chance we'll see him again in the future?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yeah, I enjoyed him too. At the moment, I don't know if he'll impinge on another tale. He's kind of a homebody.

Where there's life, there's hope, I guess...

(I have nothing in progress at the moment, I mention merely for hope-calibration purposes.)

Ta, L.
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Looking back on a successful writing career. How has your opinion of your first book changed? Please join Madeline Miller, Kami Garcia, Alessandre Torre, who among others, have also been invited to contribute to my article and share their thoughts about their first book.
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not really sure what you are asking for. For some writers, I expect first books recede into the dim mists of time and memory as an increasingly vague blur. The continuing series that Shards of Honor launched in 1986, the need for proofreading reprints of various kinds over the years, and new reviews from readers still just now discovering it has kept it relatively fresh in my mind.

It's... OK, I guess? At this point, 36 years on from first publication (40 from first starting to write it), I'm pretty sure of its survival in the marketplace, so I no longer feel much need to defend it as a covertly-economically-anxious new writer struggling to hold a spot on bookstore shelves. The kids'll be all right, as some song fragment puts it.

The characters from the book still seem to be finding life in some unknown number of readers' minds, which is the only kind of life they can have. So, all good.

Ta, L.
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A question about the Five Gods world: I would assume that each soul is taken up by one God and one God alone. Has there ever been a case of a soul being given special honors by more than one God? I can think of a man who once bore the miracles for two different Gods, and was the cause of a restoration of something significant to a third. I can picture those funerary rights as being far from the norm.
Lois McMaster Bujold While one preferred god is indeed the statistical norm, nothing so far rules out holy sharing.

Ta, L.
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Do you think you could impose on one of your engineering friends to draw a schematic of Ikos' seated pulley device? I just cannot picture it.
Lois McMaster Bujold You can ask an engineer a readily as I can... just tell her what it does, and let her work out how it must look.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois: As of June 2022, are you contemplating any new novellas set in universes besides the World of Five Gods, featuring Penric and Desdemona? Speaking of the latter, any idea how long it'll be before I need to dust off my 2nd-generation Kindle tablet? Have not read earlier Q&As yet, so you may have answered already.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing new on Pen & Des is in progress or in the pipeline right now.

However, I do have a rather unexpected personal nonfiction project upcoming, an e-chapbook of family historical documents that I compiled and edited, on which I'll be making a more complete announcement on the blog here later this month when I make it available through Kindle. So don't let your tablet get too dusty yet.

The e-chapbook will be titled The Gerould Family of New Hampshire in the Civil War, and I've made a preview of the main contents available in my "Lois's Writing" aka "My Writing" slot here on Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/story/list/...

Ta, L.
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How would you pronounce "Dendarii" and Galeni? I recently listened to a couple of audiobooks and in one, it was "den DAIRY" and in the other the same reader said "den DAIRY-eye" (and "guh LEN eye"). I've always thought of them as "den DAHR ee" and "guh LEN ee".
Lois McMaster Bujold
I pronounce them much as you do: den-DARE-ee, guh-LEAN-ee.

The audiobooks narrator and I caught up with each other at one point and corrected some of his earlier pronunciations, hence the inconsistency.

Ta, L.
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In the world of the five gods, how different are the afterlife experiences of the various gods? That is to say, if a person is taken up by the Brother, do they experience a truly different afterlife from someone taken up by the Daughter? And, as a corollary, do each of the gods have a separate "heaven" or is there one afterlife that may be affected by the perceptions of the god whose gate you came through?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not answerable -- the gods are ineffable -- and it's hard to say what happens to a soul in the hands of any god over enough time. But it's fair to guess that people who have been in the afterlife a short time like a century or so will have the most resemblance to their earthly selves, the way ghosts hold their forms only more so, but will begin to change to something less imaginable over longer time, like many millennia. "Union with god" may be rather literal over those scales.

Much the way the next 90 years may shape a person more than the first 9 months, however critical those 9 months were for existence at all. And will certainly be better remembered.

So there would likely be the most perceived differences in one's experience of the afterlife near its beginning, with, mm, maybe not fading differences, but less understandable ones, as time goes on.

Or, imagine trying to explain college life to a 3-month fetus. Heaven here is not a replication of life in the world only better, but an existence qualitatively different, however much it still depends on the world for its growth and sustenance.

Remember, these are not creator gods, but created ones, emergent properties of the world. Though for life after death, they are the only game in town.

Ta, L.
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Did Gregor and Laisa follow strict Barrayaran tradition and name their firstborn son Serg, since the majority of the populace consider him a war hero? Or did they choose another name so they weren't giving their child that history to live down?
Lois McMaster Bujold Definitely chose another name/s. "Xav" likely features somewhere, speaking of war hero relatives. That diplomat-prince at least had a good galactic reputation

"Ezar" may not appear either, given his history with Komarr, which Barrayar is trying to retroactively woo. Current success patchy but sufficient.

Ta, L.
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Hello! A question about contraceptive implants on Barrayar - could women make these medical decisions for themselves, or was a husband or father's permission required? (To either get, or remove, the implant?) This might influence decisions for certain of my favourite couples who are betrothed but not yet married. There are references such as "observing the traditions, at least, as far as Mama and Da know ..." TY!
Lois McMaster Bujold The answer to this question would have changed through time and local polities (countships). Before the end of the Time of Isolation, it wasn't a question that could even be asked, as the tech did not exist. The disruptions of the Occupation and its war would have prevented anyone focusing on such issues, but the tech would have been leaking slowly out from the more to the less developed areas. In general, it's something that would be left to families, not taken up in legislatures -- this could be good or bad.

The law tended to skirt around "women's work". So it's more likely any permissions would be the purview of the mother rather than the father, for girls. Remember, minor girls are by default in the legal custody of their mothers, not their fathers.

By Gregor's reign, empire-wide "galactic standard", i.e., Cordelia-driven, customs of leaving the decision to individuals (so yes, the women) would prevail. (And do remember, that's not the only contraceptive on the market, tho' likely the most reliable -- older methods would also remain in circulation.) Celibacy (for women) would remain a lingering social ideal long after it had become medically moot, I expect. The way it does.

Ta, L.
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I just finished rereading "Flowers of Vashnoi" and realized that by "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen" it must be eight or nine years later. How do you think the rad bug experiment progressed? It gives me so many ideas for us, here, in our world since science seems to be (ever so slowly) pivoting toward natural and/or biological solutions rather than ever more technical, toxic ones.
Lois McMaster Bujold
One of the reasons the plot of that tale veered toward the social rather than the scientific was indeed the timescale of realistic research. I can think of ways it might have succeeded, and ways it might have failed; the only certainty is that there would need to be many trials to get it right, and even then it might flounder on economic-feasibility rocks.

I would point out that a number of attempted bio-solutions in our world have not gone well; cane toads ferex. (Ask an Australian about that one.)

Biotechie people are welcome to speculate in the comments...

Ta, L.
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I saw this in The Atlantic and immediately thought of Niki's gene therapy: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/06/experimental-gene-therapy-cystinosis-hair-color/661348/ (Obligatory: ?)
Lois McMaster Bujold Cool!

The biology has always been the most scientific part of my science fiction

Ta, L.
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Have you read the book about how Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues discovered a way to edit genes? It's titled The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. I've been reading follow-ups and it's not far-fetched to think that inside a decade or so we may be able to radically transform out bodies, even to changing our sex much more completely than the crude methods of today.
Lois McMaster Bujold I have not, but sounds interesting.

L.
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What if Ethan of Athos starred a young Cordelia instead of Elli Quinn? When Ethan asks Elli if she'll donate an ovary to Athos, Elli mostly seems amused, not overly swayed by the thought of having hundreds of sons with her DNA. But Cordelia has an insatiable drive to expand her own biological empire. I bet Cordelia would have screamed "YES" to Ethan's question and gone and had it chopped out on the spot!
Lois McMaster Bujold Interesting scenario!

Both coming to the same result, though perhaps Cordelia's enthusiasm would have been tempered by maternal concerns that would not occur to Elli. Elli did seem quite willing to just be a cuckoo, and fly away afterward.

Ta, L.
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I wonder if anyone else watching Jeopardy and hearing Hamlet's quote "doth conscience make cowards of us all" instead thought - hey Miles said that to Aral? Too bad my V knowledge has no potential financial benefit lol.
Lois McMaster Bujold Aral had the backbone to stand up even to his conscience, I think...

Ta, L.
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As an author, how do you feel about content/trigger warnings? Some of your books have unpleasant things happening to characters (e.g. Elena Visconti). I really like those books, but I've recently been adding my own warnings while recommending them to friends. Would you be happy for an editor/publisher to add official warnings at the start of a book, or would that be treading on your toes?
Lois McMaster Bujold Trigger and content warnings are a custom that has arisen in online fan fiction. Professional fiction for an adult market has never had them, the audience being assumed to be grownups with agency capable of making and owning their own choices. To me, it would feel like infantilizing my audience.

Somebody else choosing and applying such tags for my work pre-publication would feel a little too close to censorship. Though I suppose it would be better than direct censorship. (Though I can see how it could be argued that this would actually remove the need for censorship, as it maybe seems to do in fanfiction. But I suspect it would just result in authors self-censoring in the effort to avoid audience-and-sales-reducing tags, and editors and publishers encouraging it for the same economic reasons.)

There is also the problem, if one starts such a thing, of where to stop, since there will always be one more outlier who could be imagined to be unhappy about something in the content however arcane or idiosyncratic. Thus those warning/tag blocks one sometimes sees in fanfic that have a higher word-count than the story being prefaced...

That said, I am starting to see such warnings prefacing recent professional work self-supplied by authors who seem to have come out of the fanfiction culture. (It's almost a marker.) So we may be on the verge of a generational divide with respect to this custom.

What friends have to say to friends when handing books around has nothing to do with the foregoing, it should not be necessary to say but probably is.

Ta, L.

(The way fan readers-and-writers set up their own ways of categorizing and filtering work, for their own needs, see ferex Ao3's methods of indexing, as contrasted with the way traditional publishing and bookstores do, is a study worth its own essay or possibly book.)
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"The World of the Five Gods" seems a bit of a mouthful, hasn't anyone suggested Pentheon (penta+theon, and also a play on pantheon) instead? Sorry if this has been suggested, but if Goodreads has a way of searching "ask the author" posts, I haven't managed to find it.
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh. I agree with you as to the unwieldiness of the series name. (Some fans abbreviate it "5GU" for "five gods universe" in casual posts, but I felt that was not identifier enough for the uninitiated; also I have not yet committed to my theological world-building extending beyond one planet.) "Pentheon" is amusing and succinct, but might make for some confusion with respect to one of my protagonist's names.

Not that there aren't people named things like "Theophilus" or "Theodosia" in real life...

Ta, L.

(It's also now engraved on my Hugo for Best Series, so rather indelible.)
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No question, just a sincere thank-you for making my life better in difficult times. Okay, it says I need a question mark. So here it is???
Lois McMaster Bujold You are welcome!

Many books have done that for me, so paying forward is good.

Ta, L.
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At what point did you decide/realize/suspish/inkle that Assassins of Thasalon would be a novel and not the shorter form usual for Pen and Des and what prompted that decision/realization/suspicion/inkling?
Lois McMaster Bujold I did persuade myself to start it in the theory it was going to be a novella. When I approached the ~40k word limit for that form and my crew had not yet made it to Thasalon, I conceded. I toyed for a while with splitting it into a novella duology, but decided I'd prefer to keep the story together. As long as it didn't eat a year to write, which it didn't, thankfully. (I still think of it as a novella that got out of hand.) Well, part of the aim of the Pen & Des series was that it was not to be bound to any pre-set template, so, all good.

Ta, L.
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I've recently started becoming obsessed with framing and hanging up maps of my favorite fantasy and sci-fi worlds, of which yours definitely qualify. Do you know of any poster- or print-worthy maps of the jump routes of your Vorkosiverse?
Lois McMaster Bujold My maps tend to be pretty rudimentary. There was one of wormhole jump relationships I think I devised for The Vor Game, but nothing more official. There might be something fan-made around -- commenters could chime in below.

Otherwise, there was Ron Miller's nice poster of the e-covers, which I think is still available somewhere. I'd have to scroll way back through my blog for the link, or someone might have it offhand.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold Not much more than the characters are realizing, I think, a moment of mourning for a personal opportunity of some closer relationship that never really was.

(Other readers may chime in with other interpretations. The hazard of leaving things subtly unspoken between the lines is that readers don't always fill in the blanks with what the writer had in mind.)

Ta, L.
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Hi, my name is Lucille Montague & I have 2 books self published through KDP/Amazon and I’m not getting many sales. My question is; did you hire a book marketing company to market your work & if so how does it work? Thanks for your help.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have a 40-year traditional publishing career behind me, which did my marketing for me, pretty much. So I'm not the best person to answer this question. I have no idea how such things work, but I'd be very cautious of claims from would-be book marketers, or anyone else who is making their money from you and not from your book (as a publisher does.) There are simply too many ebooks competing for too few eyes, too little reading time.

This is the internet age, so there have to be a million self-help sites and vids out there; the problem is finding a legitimate and actually useful one. Kristine Katherine Rusch's blog is a good known starting point for experienced advice. https://kriswrites.com/ Another more recent presenter I ran across who impressed me with being pretty level-headed was YouTuber M.K. Williams, ferex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LsqE...

But ultimately, books have to sell themselves, be appealing enough to enough readers to keep them coming back for more, and recommending them on to their friends. This requires a) writing enjoyable or useful books, and b) writing more books to come back for. As a rule of thumb, both pre- and post-internet, a writer is better off directing their limited time-energy budget toward producing new quality work than various frantic or annoying attempts at marketing.

An error I saw in the early days of the internet egoldrush with respect to b) was writers throwing all kinds of old crap up just to have more items to catch the eye, ultimately counterproductive. Every book put up needs to be good enough to bring its random reader back for more, because that may be the only chance to snag that readerly eye the writer gets. (The hitch in this plausible advice is the definition of "good", which in reading is very subjective. Understanding this has allowed quite a few indie writers to do well in their own quirky niche markets that Big Publishing is not structured to serve.)

If any commenters do have actual experience with modern book marketers, or "marketers" as the case may be, good or bad, do chime in down below. It strikes me as an arena that would be rife with scamming pitfalls.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Correct, Joen's demon is not Des. But an interesting compare-and-contrast about how much can go wrong with a demon too long in the world under corrupt and corrupting and/or ignorant masters.

Desdemona was much luckier in her riders, not least because she fell into shrewd and nurturing Temple hands soon enough.

Best Temple vs. Worst Hedge is kind of cherry-picking the moral gradient; there can be hedge sorcerers who do well, due to their personal integrity, and Temple sorcerers who do badly due to their lack of same -- we saw an example in Tronio. But the Temple's oversight, or, more correctly, the oversight of the better folks in the Temple, do try to improve the odds.

A demon's underlying nature is chaotic-destructive; that never goes away. Even a demon as "good" as Des could be spoiled if it fell into the hands of a bad enough rider. Whether a demon as smart as Des could get herself out of that trap, ah, more promptly than natural is another interesting knock-on question. With its own consequences...

Ta, L.
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Remember those old razor commercials - "I liked it so much, I bought the company?" I love the Vorkosigan books so much I named my son Miles. He's 11 now and eagerly awaiting the date when he's old enough to read them. Do I need a question? That's a question, right? Anyway, thank you, for writing these wonderful books. Cordelia has been a maternal role model for me.
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome!

Heh. Cordelia is sort of a maternal fantasy for me -- she does it so much better than I ever could. Professional driver, closed course, as they disclaim in those commercials.

Ta, L.
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In Falling Free, the name of the pirated Earth holovid the quaddies watch in the clubhouse is "The Prisoner of Zenda". That's the name of a real book (an abysmally-terrible 1894 adventure novel that spawned a whole genre of works featuring British people messing about with fictional Eastern European countries in political turmoil). Why the nod to that book? Some any metaphorical connection I've missed?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nothing metaphorical; it was just an adventure book (and movie, by the way) that would be utterly alien to the quaddies, but that modern readers would recognize, and thus recognize the absurd mismatch. (Well... maybe.) It has a sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, an early entry into the "let's explore the villain as a hero of his own tale" trope. I've read both, long ago.

Ta, L.
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Just hypothetically, if another Vorkosigan novel was in the works, what is the process of discussing the unveiling date with Baen?
Lois McMaster Bujold There is no Vorkosigan (nor, just at the moment, anything else) in the works, so the question is moot.

As a general rule for all my work, my process is to have the idea and to have worked through at least the first several chapters, and ideally most of the first draft, before discussing contracts or even content with anyone. I want it to feel really solid before making promises.

Historically, this has varied quite a lot, including having sold a work on a one-word outline as part of a 3-book contract and then writing something completely else. (As I dimly recall, it was "Quaddies", a vague notion for a sequel to Falling Free, which actually ended up being The Vor Game. No one complained.) But I'm much more comfortable selling work after it is written.

Ta, L.
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I just finished a second reading of The Vor Game, and was wondering if you've ever considered bringing Cavilo back? It definitely feels like she has unfinished business with Miles!
Lois McMaster Bujold That's a frequently asked question! But no, she remains one of the many dangling threads that happen when a writer makes up so many people.

...33 years ago, from my point of view, even though some readers will have just met her last week.

Ta, L.
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I was recently looking up information on the real-life inspiration for Cardegoss, and I found some information that hinted that the Zangre might have been the same castle where parts of Verdi's "Il trovatore" took place. Is that the case, or do I have my castles crossed? Thanks!
Lois McMaster Bujold The Zangre was inspired by the Alcazar of Segovia (Cazaril's name is also a part anagram from the same source.) I don't know the Verdi opera, alas, but if you do, that may be enough to figure it out.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't have any plans at this time for NextGen tales, no. Nor names in mind, although I'm pretty sure the crown prince is named Xav.

Ivan and Tej will likely have children eventually, one trusts in time to gratify Alys.

Ta, L
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Dear Lois, Thank you so much for writing a series which has brought me-and so many others-so much enjoyment over the years. Recently, I learned about Richard J. Flaherty, shortest infantryman in US Army history, standing at 4'9. Reading about him, I was struck with a distinct Milesian vibe. Was any of Miles' character/appearance based on Capt Flaherty? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you have enjoyed the series!

No, I'd not heard of Flaherty, though after my series got started many short soldiers of history were brought to my attention, most interestingly Prince Eugene of Savoy and Homer Lea. (Both worth a look-up.) Miles's actual inspirational roots run more to T. E. Lawrence and the young Winston Churchill, though not in any 1:1 manner.

Ta, L.
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Hi! Thankyou for your novels. With the Vorkosigan universe, Do you ever privately worry about the trouble left behind in that universe from some of the endings of your books? (My husband and I’ve speculated 200 years later, when Eli Quinn’s genes have saturated Athos, curious and competently violent telepaths running roughshod over the rest of the universe. )
Lois McMaster Bujold I wouldn't say worry, exactly... mildly speculate, perhaps.

The trouble with real-world prognostication it that it tends to straight-line thinking, "if this goes on", when in fact events are a giant snarl of many factors all of them constantly changing, interacting and mutating, with new and unanticipated ones jumping in from the side out of seeming-nowhere. Realistic fictional speculation should share a touch of this, I think.

Ta, L.
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Hi there, i hope you are doing well. Congrats on your amazing success. I wanted to check if you would kindly review a childrens book i've written dedicated to my late father? I would love your honest feedback and a endorsement. This is apart of my late father legacy and id really appreciate it. This is my first time ever writing a book so any support would mean alot to me. I look forward to hearing from you.
Lois McMaster Bujold No, sorry, I am not a professional reviewer, and I do not read and review on request. My Goodreads reviews are merely comments on (some) things I chanced to read already.

I also do not review works I did not finish, anything I did not like (strong overlap there) or, usually, more than volume one of multi-part works.

(Thank you, by the way, for not putting in the particulars of your book into this unavoidably public reply forum, turning the question into a stealth ad that I can only deal with by not answering at all. I appreciate the courtesy.)

Ta, L.
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Do you think, if serious about it and not needing to remove the prince and Using the plasma mirror information, Aral or even Miles could have taken Escobar? Using a sucide pilot to block Beta from sending the mirrors? Boarding the ships instead of shooting at them?
Lois McMaster Bujold Mm, maybe, but more likely not. The Barrayarans might have gained temporary control in space, of the wormholes and maybe the orbitals. But if the purpose of the war was to annex a functioning planet, and not just reduce it to a cinder, that's ground war of a very ugly and expensive sort, with a very long and thin supply line. Escobar also has a considerable population advantage.

One must also consider the wider diplomatic context. Intimidating the neighbors is one thing; terrifying them into uniting against you, another, and more than two can play that game. Possibly by different rules. Cetagandan micro-surgically-genetically targeted biowar, anyone...? (Which, if the target planet can be quarantined behind wormholes, bears less risk of blowing back on the caster. Highly inadvisable if the opposing sides are occupying the same planet.)

Ta, L.
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I’ve seen you refer to the gods in the World of 5 Gods as ineffable. I mislike the concept of ineffability. I believe that given enough time, resources and creative curious minds, nothing is ineffable. Do you have any beliefs on the matter outside of your created worlds?
Lois McMaster Bujold In the real world, "ineffable" is usually a synonym for "we haven't figured it out yet", or "this is too hard for me to understand." Still, what is understanding? For most people, it's metaphors all the way down.

Though if you take "ineffable" as a description of an emotional response, akin to "awe", mm, maybe.

That said, it's interesting to imagine the sort of mental effort that went into development of the scientific worldview in our world going into practical theology in Penric's world. (The medieval Scholastics make a fascinating study as a worked bad example. So much brainpower wasted on so little use...)

Ta, L.
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Since the gods in the World of Five Gods can only interact with the world through their "disciples", does that mean that the dragonfly that bite Penric on Knots was a dragonfly saint?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hee! Now there's a question worthy of Scholastic-style debates... which I am sure enliven the halls Wot5G seminaries, with or without late-night beer.

Ta, L.

(Dang, "5GU" was a more succinct acronym. Too late now.)
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My favorite book of all time is Curse of Chalion. Do you think that you'll write another sequel to it, either a full-length book or novella? I think there are lots of stories still to be told about the characters in it or in Paladin of Souls. I reread them both at least once a year and always wish for more.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I have more in the world of course -- The Hallowed Hunt and the, now, 11 Penric & Desdemona tales -- but presuming you've already found those, I suspect what you hanker for are the particular characters from those first two novels. Thing is, I feel both Cazaril's and Ista's great spiritual journeys are complete. Anything added would be anticlimax or smudging. Novellas are less ruled out, but would feel like writing my own fanfiction. Which I am not above doing, but the story-notions that have compelled me have gone in other directions.

If one looks beyond that core cast of characters, it's a whole world and there are many other people-possibilities in it, yes, hence Penric & Desdemona, or Ingrey and Ijada for that matter. If you haven't found HH and P&D yet, the question is easier to answer -- I can just point.

In any case, I'm glad the Chalion duo has held up for you after all these years! ...Decades now, oof.

Ta, L,
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Reading "Masquerade in Lodi" today, for the ninth time, it occurs to me that so far you've given us only one night of Penric's residence in Lodi (I don't know how long he stayed there). Do you think you might go back there sometime, or are you done with it? It would be nice to see the characters again, if they happen to fit into some other story.
Lois McMaster Bujold Pen's times in Lodi, Martensbridge, and his shaman-student year in Easthome are all still on the table, but in addition to needing the right idea, it needs to be one that fits in without throwing off later-set stories written earlier. This is tricky, like swapping out one card in the second layer of a six-layer house of cards.

Ta, L.
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Wasn’t Penric exploding earthworms somewhat . . . disrespectful? Though I’m not entirely sure of who. Inglis? The Royal Society? Shamanistic traditions?
Lois McMaster Bujold The earthworms, perhaps. Although given the worms' imminent fate of being stabbed, drowned, and eaten by fish, that may be a distinction without a difference.

But, Science! Don't just speculate or assert, test!

Ta, L.
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Near the end of “The Prisoner of Limnos”, Penric mentioned to Nikys that “I might still like to take you to visit Adria sometime.” I wonder whether that thought remained with him? If so, there are two ways that we might see Lodi again: with or without flashback. I’m not obsessed with Lodi, it's just that our first visit was brief, and it’s been on my mind recently. I once visited Venice briefly…
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh, I once visited Venice briefly, too. Very memorable!

The idea is certainly not ruled out. Anything that involves research I've already done has a certain edge.

Ta, L.
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Will it offend you if I wish you a very happy plenty-third birthday, with many more to come?
Lois McMaster Bujold Indeed not! Thank you!

Lois.
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Happy Birthday to my favorite author. Hope it was a wonderful day for you. You have brought us so much joy, laughter, and tears through your writing. Thank you, so much. Goodreads says I have to phrase this as a question, like Jeopardy, lol. The answer is; The author who created the Vorkosiverse, the Wide Green World, and the World of the Five Gods. Who is Lois McMaster Bujold?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you! I had a very pleasant day.

Ta, L.
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Did you have a happy birthday? It might be a belated birthday by the time you see this.
Lois McMaster Bujold Not very belated. I had a very pleasant day. First dinner out in a very long time!

bests, Lois.
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Again - a Very Happy Birthday, Lois! :) (I am traditionally late, but I was thinking of you the WHOLE time). Wish you the world and the stars and am so glad you've been out! to dinner. Still haven't written you a poem, shot you a movie, draw you a comic book or played you a song - will you forgive me?
Lois McMaster Bujold It's quite enough present for me that you read and enjoy my work!

And that folks in general have been doing so for so many years. Very gratifying.

Ta, L.
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Hello, Do you think e-books are more popular for short stories and novellas than printed books?
Lois McMaster Bujold It's hard for very short works to be profitably marketed on paper. People expect a certain heft for the price they must pay. Short story collections and anthologies, which are the only way to make up market weight, are notoriously poor sellers in paper compared to novels. (Novella collections aren't much better.) So yeah, I don't know about popular, but ala carte short stories are much more possible to sell electronically than on paper.

(A collection, in this context, is a book of stories by one writer; an anthology is a book of stories by many writers.)

Ta, L.
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Once again I am late to wish you a happy natal day. So again - a Very Happy Birthday, Lois! I do hope it was a happy one for you. Mais où sont les neiges d'antan? I thought I'd try to attach the question mark to something classy this year... Steve from Zanesville
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you! I had a pleasant birthday.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, A few times, Penric twists up a message before handing it off to be delivered; I assume as a security measure. Perhaps you would be intrigued to know* about "letter locking" which is an old this-world solution for same. There are several YouTube videos and a good website about it by Jana Dambrogio. *assuming you don't already know?
Lois McMaster Bujold Less security than temporary privacy, in Pen's case, in a moment when he had no sealing wax. Nope, I had not heard of letter locking before.

Ta, L.
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A reasonably priced physical copy Flowers of Vashnoi is impossible to find, and it pains me that my collection is complete. While I would not pay a reseller an exorbitant amount, I would gladly pay you a ludicrous amount direct if you have a spare? It's a ridiculous long shot, but I think it's funny to try. My whippet's registered name is Whispers Miles Naismith Vorkosigan :)
Lois McMaster Bujold Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore is getting their copies from me, till my very limited supply runs out. So if you want the resale price to go in part to the author, that's the place to go. And Hugo's takes care of the sales tax and shipping, bless them.

If whippets are as hyperactive as I think, your dog may be very well named!

Ta, L.
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Wishing you a happy belated Birthday! Thank you for your entertaining reading - hoping since I'm so belated the birthday wishes will not be thought of as too old?
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm perfectly happy to enjoy my birthday all year long. Or, of course, there are always Unbirthdays.

Ta, L.
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I've notived you have characters with Finnish names popping up in your various books, Captain Tuomonen in Komarr being one. Have you some connection with Finland?
Lois McMaster Bujold Mostly I'd been just trying to select the Barrayaran ethnic names in ways that reflected or hinted at the varied regional origins of the Firsters, but I did have a quite wonderful trip to Finland for a convention some years back.

(This name selection process has been much aided by the arrival of the internet, so I'm not limited anymore to ideas gleaned from my local phone book.)

Ta, L.
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Give that Gentleman Jole takes palace more than 5 years after Vorpatril’s Alliance when the Barrayar government came into an unexpected influx of billions of marks, why is Sergyer still scrambling to build a second planetary base / spaceport? Did fatherhood turn Gregor stingy?
Lois McMaster Bujold I suspect you underestimate how much planetary (or national) governments cost, and how many projects compete for funding. $406 billion for the US Federal alone for one year, a quick google suggests, not counting the states, or the rest of the planet. And we don't even have a space navy...

As some legislator once quipped, "A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money!"

Ta, L.
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I wonder how much interest Miles is taking in his half-sisters and one third (?) brothers, since they are so far away physically and so different in age. I have had several friends with siblings and half siblings far away physically and/or chronologically and they run the gamut from being very close, to being cordial acquaintances, to being essentially strangers.
Lois McMaster Bujold With 9 to choose from, I'd imagine there'd be a wide range of relationships possible. A more cousinly relationship would be likely between Cordelia and Jole's kids and Miles's. They'd likely see each other once, maybe twice a year, depending on travels; about what you'd get between cousins living in different distant states. But Miles would be functionally more uncle than brother.

(Cordelia's girls are full sisters to Miles, Jole's boys are half-brothers and some mitochondrial change. They are all aunts and uncles to Miles's kids, all younger than their nieces and nephews, doubtless the source of many family jokes.)

Ta, L.
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Rereading _A Civil Campaign_ for the Nth time, I wondered about whether you had already developed the plot of that book while you were writing _Komarr_ -- the latter story makes such brilliant use of the plot elements set up in the earlier one. Did you have the main plot of ACC laid out when writing Komarr?
Lois McMaster Bujold Only in the broadest sense of "a Barrayaran Regency/Shakespearean romantic comedy". Komarr was the romantic drama half, and it would have been a tonal mismatch to try to jam both parts together into one book.

Parts that came up only well after I started writing the first draft were Mark's butter bug plot, recycled from an abandoned short story idea, and Ivan's plot with Donna/Dono. Ivan's subplot gave me fits, as I generated and slew several bad ideas, till Dono arrived and took over, in all her/his thematic perfection.

Viewpoint, and limiting it, mattered hugely in structuring and centering the story. At one point I had an early scene from Pym's point of view, which would have pulled the tale off-course into a study of armsmen in the capital, which, however intrinsically interesting, was not what turned out to be thematically on-point. Also I dimly recall (it's been over 20 years, yowza) a scene either written or outlined from Gregor's point of view, which would have had a similar problem. His romance was told in Memory and did not need revisited.

More high-level fannish musing on ACC here: http://dendarii.com/accc.html

Ta, L.
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Hello, I received my signed books from Uncle Hugo today and it came on a day that I really really needed a pick me up. Thank you. It really meant a lot. Merry Christmas and thanks for being awesome <3 (This ? is included to satisfy Goodreads' requirements. I'll leave you be now. You can leave this unanswered ;) )
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome!

Hugo's does a great job for my books.

Ta, L.
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This is extremely random and detailed, but I always wanted to know what happened to Kostolitz?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no idea. He likely went on to an unexceptionable career as a Barrayaran officer, mustering out at either 10 or 20 years depending on his career prospects. But, really, a blank, as characters drawn from central casting for bit parts so often are.

Ta, L.
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Happy Winterfair wishes to Lois and all who read her works. I am assuming that Winterfair takes place on and around the Winter Solstice, which is today, as I type this, on Old Earth. And Penric, Des and the rest in the world of the Five Gods should be celebrating Father's MidWinter? I can't remember, do the Sharing Knife characters celebrate a middle of winter holiday?
Lois McMaster Bujold I could swear I answered this this morning, but apparently I sent it into oblivion. Anyway, winter solstice would be the Father's Day proper; "Father's Midwinter" would be halfway through the quarter, or about Groundhog Day. (Hence the point of the old joke, which I never got as a kid, that if the groundhog sees its shadow there will be six more weeks of winter.)

You all can do your own arithmetic for the other god-mids, although there is no certainty that the year or even the day is the same length on the Five Gods world as our own. (Solstices and equinoxes would still divide it up evenly.)

I didn't much address holidays in the world of The Sharing Knife, but one may assume solstices, equinoxes, harvest festivals, and local memorials would be observed variously.

Ta, L.
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I tear up when I read the last line of Cryoburn. (Before the Aftermaths.) But I always cry while reading the aftermaths. How can a man I never met make me cry? How can a man who never lived except on paper move me to cry? You are an artist.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you!

It's something I wonder about, when I'm in a bio-evolutionary mood -- why do people's brains even do fiction? Storytelling is something done in every culture, and generally anything so universal has to have a biological root. Story-making certainly ties in with language -- even the most utilitarian uses of speech, like describing where that good berry patch or fresh carcass may be found, involve using sounds to make pictures appear in other people's brains/minds. From there to mistakes, making pictures that aren't true, to lies to stories is no step at all; they all use the same program. (Teaching, too.) I suspect empathy, mirroring as recent psychology dubs it, came before speech, but speech taps into that as well.

Emotional responses to fiction may be induced by immersion, giving the reader as close to the characters' experiences as possible, teaching as it goes. They may also, much more succinctly, be induced by evocation, drawing up (presumably) shared experiences from the readers' minds, which is very powerful when it works but can fall flat if the reader doesn't have any analogue to the experience, or knowledge of the reference. (The bifurcation of responses to the end of Cryoburn, to judge from some readerly discussion, sometimes seems to depend on what real-life bereavements the reader has suffered, in a sort of resonance. Or not, as the case may be.)

"I loved that character" is often assumed, when it happens across gender boundaries, to be the reader positing the character as an imaginary heartthrob, but I think it is way more often identification, strong empathy. (Not that it can't be some of both.) It's certainly identification for me, sometimes in the most oblique ways, when I attach to a fictional character. (Confusing the two forms of attachment has led to some rather mis-aimed readers recs, both to me and by me.)

Any of the above paragraphs could be a 10k-word essay, but there isn't enough space. Or tea. Consider them the boiled-down takeaway, tl;dnr without the r.

Happy New Year to all, this snowy morning --

Ta, L.
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Dear Mrs. Lois, I would like to build a subscription based online video platform where book authors can share short educational videos and engage in private conversations with their readers/fans. Would you be so kind to respond to my market research study in order to validare or invalidate my idea? If you agree, please let me know so I can send you the link. Thank you !
Lois McMaster Bujold I don't voluntarily do videos, and I can get about all the fan interaction I can handle right here. So you likely need to canvass younger or more active writers.

Ta, L.
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I am taking the Read Harder 2023 challenge, and the second task is to read your favourite author's favourite book, and you have long been my favourite author, so if you don't mind my asking, do you have a favourite book, or favourite author?
Lois McMaster Bujold Wow, that's a hard question to answer. There have been many many books I've liked over the years, fewer I've liked over decades, fewer still that I'd want to reread right now, some authors that are lingering faves but have a lot of books or a tight series -- Pratchett, Heyer, Turner, Tolkien. But you need a book, not a bookcase. I'll assume you've read The Lord of the Rings, so let's go with, hm, Georgette Heyer's Cotillion. There are half-a-dozen titles of hers that are first tier that I could have offered instead.

Otherwise, Megan Whalen Turner's fantasy The Thief, but N.B., that's the first book of a 6-book series, and it takes the first three for the full reward to really slot in. (Not a hardship.)

Ta, L.
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I just realized that Miles in The Warrior's Apprentice is the Wizard of Oz! Elena the Scarecrow needs an education. Arde the Tin Man is emotionally dependent on wormhole jumps and his "bottle of oil", the green booze. Baz Jesek is, of course, the Cowardly Lion. Miles convinces them that they already have it in them, and flies away in a balloon while the Dendarii cheer. There's no place like Barrayar! Am I close?
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I was actually thinking of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" at the time, as the title points to, but I like this parallel too.

:-), L.
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I just reread the Sharing Knife series - and whenever I read it I wonder, do you think you’ll ever write a prequel that tells the story of what happened? To create malices? Seems like there’s so much fodder for that story.
Lois McMaster Bujold Well, I have, or had, a broad scheme of things in mind at one point, lacking detail and most critically, characters; though a bounded or restricted range of possibilities is still many many. But mostly, it would be a downer. I neither read nor write dystopias or disaster epics. And writing smaller scale cozy stories pre-disaster in a world all the readers know is doomed would feel weird.

So, likely not.

Ta, L.
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Laid off again. This is the second time I have had your books to lean on when things are not going well, and I love how warm they are to read. The first time was the Vorkosigan saga and now Sharing Knife and 5 Gods. ...and as an aspiring writer, I despair of writing characters so adroitly humorous and well-drawn. A question mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you for the kind words, and I'm deeply glad my books are serving you in your need. That's a function of fiction I think gets overlooked in so-called "critical" thinking, along with other emotional impacts and effects on readers generally. (Crit tends to valorize the political over the personal, and my dim opinion on that would take a whole essay.)

Ta, L.
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Why does the renegade ba in Diplomatic Immunity have the name Dubauer, the same name as Cordelia's ill-fated ensign from Shards of Honor? Is Dubauer just a very common surname on Beta Colony?
Lois McMaster Bujold Correct. Like "Smith". The ba knew enough to select an unexceptional name.

Founder effect, ultimately. The short pre-VKverse-story "Dreamweaver's Dilemma" explains that, indirectly. (To be found in my e-collection Proto Zoa.)

Ta, L.
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This is a bit of a silly question, but I couldn't help wondering: The Vor Game mentions that Bel's cabin on the Ariel had, among other things, "a small cage housing an exotic pet from Earth Thorne called a hamster." Did you have any idea of how Bel acquired this hamster, or what happened to it, when writing that detail? Or was it just a throwaway line of description to round out the setting & character? :)
Lois McMaster Bujold A throwaway line. Bel likely acquired it in some spaceport shop on a whim. Hamsters are not long-lived creatures -- or at least, my daughter's never were -- so I imagine it was a temporary indulgence.

Ta, L.
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Heard a podcast from the Progress Educational Trust in the UK, wherein five academics present on the legacy of JBS Haldane's 1923 lecture/text, Daedalus. Haldane pioneered the idea of in vitro fertilization and exo-gestation. Your exploration of these themes in the Vorkosiverse sprang to mind. Thought you might enjoy it and PET's content generally. Are you aware of them? Podcast TinyURL: https://tinyurl.com/yc7bxhru
Lois McMaster Bujold Don't know PET -- thanks for the heads-up -- but this does suggest where Aldous Huxley got the idea for his 1932 SF novel Brave New World. Which is the earliest place I, and I suspect a lot of other SF writers, got the idea for what is now a fairly standard genre trope for anyone who thinks about future biology in any depth.

My uterine replicators are actually a bit of a conscious argument with Huxley -- it's been decades since I read his book, but my young Midwestern mind was left with the impression that he used the technology as an exploration of specifically British class tensions, alien to me, but, fair, that sort of political allegory is what a lot of SF does. But I thought, yeah, but what would real people do, for which my first and ongoing answer was "not just one thing, but all of the things". So I've tried to include as many different uses and social consequences as I could think of.

Ta, L.
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If Miles were ever put to screen would you prefer it done as live action or anime?
Lois McMaster Bujold Either or both would be fine -- one does not preclude the other if one's media contracts are written right. Though I would especially like to see Falling Free as an animation. And I always thought The Spirit Ring would be great done by some spiritual heir of Ray Harryhausen, for its climax sequence. Either could be feature-length -- Miles would really need to be a series or mini-series, whether live or animated.

Media adaptations are a buyers' market, though, so it's not up to me. Somebody with a hundred million dollars would have to decide it would not lose money for them, and such persons are very rare. (Possibly a lower budget and bar for animation, but still the same problem.)

Ta, L.
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I am reading the Sharing Knife Series and I love it, but I have to wonder why you made the age difference so great between the couple. It seems like a very thought out choice, but I have to admit I just don’t get it! Can you explain?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Two reasons, well, three, one extrinsic and two intrinsic. Extrinsically, the age gap gives a proxy visceral response to some readers parallel to the in-story visceral response of characters to the bloodline gap. Modern readers, well, any that are likely to pick up my books, would presumably scorn a negative response to the latter; quite a few of them recoil from the former. Alas, absolutely no one other than myself has ever made this mirroring cultural compare-and-contrast connection, one of the many sub-components of the long journey-of-understanding the books try to give to both characters and readers.

Intrinsically, this is what the characters were when they walked into my head. I don't argue with that gift.

But more specifically, Dag and Fawn stitch together what were at the time the two emotional ends of my own generational life experiences. I was 55 when I started writing the tetralogy, as post-adult as I'd ever been, and I most certainly remembered being a late-teen girl-woman, desperate to start my adult life. (Which makes Dag, not Fawn, my Mary Sue, but a lot of people don't seem to realize that strong identification with characters, for media creators and consumers, crosses genders. Which is a whole 'nother essay.)

So, yeah, very thought out.

Ta, L.
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Just wanted to say thank-you for recommending The Thief. I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series! Question mark so they will let me post this?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome! The series gets even better in the next couple of volumes, by my tastes.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are entirely welcome. That wasn't a reader-response I actually anticipated, no more than I anticipated the first responses to Miles or the quaddies or Ethan from readers who had real-life reasons to feel special identification or recognition with them when, to me, the characters simply were who they were. I continue to learn from readers.

Ta, L.
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Are the Vorkosigan Saga's two hatchet-faced men related? Cordelia's first impresson of Sgt. Bothari matches Tej's first impression of Emperor Gregor in this vividly evocative way. Bothari has protection within the military despite the trouble that his Yuri-like disorder causes, and his dislike of Vor seems like it could stem from feelings of abandonment. Is Bothari a son (maybe even the eldest) of Ezar?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope. Bothari's unknown father was a Random Customer, probably without gene cleaning so probably Barrayaran not galactic, not that there were many galactics around during that period. Well, apart from the Cetagandans, who would have been gene-cleaned. (See: Rene Vorbretten.) Outside possibility, dad was a passing spacer crewman with considerable radiation or other accumulated gonad damage, though.

If Barrayaran, caste or grand-caste of dad also unknown. (Recalling Cordelia and Piotr's breakfast conversation on the subject, Vor ancestry of some sort is possible, sure, somewhere up the tree.) Some of Bothari's problems also may have been what is now being called epigenetic, exposure to toxins in the womb due to things his dodgy mother was ingesting; some was certainly due to the toxic social environment in which he grew up.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm not sure I'd call it unconscious... :-)

But yes, Venetia was a fun book. Not my favorite of Heyer's, but there are so many of hers vying for the top spots that's no disrecommendation.

Ta, L.
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Can you imagine Miles volunteering with a suicide prevention charity? "Don't do it! Being dead didn't solve any of my problems at all, they were all here when they brought me back plus this lousy seizure disorder. The afterlife is totally unmemorable, I don't remember anything between dying and being defrosted." Unless you want to argue that his physical brain didn't go and couldn't record it, Miles would have questio
Lois McMaster Bujold Heh. There's a satirical fanfic waiting to happen...

For added bonus points, and a longer fic, imagine the roster of the rest of the characters in the role, for compare and contrast. I mean... Cordelia. Gregor. Aral. Ivan. Illyan. Alys... Yeah, it could be worse. Older Ivan might not be so bad, though.

Ta, L.
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IMHO, Mirror Dance is a modern masterpiece of fiction. Are you ever concerned that some may choose not to read the book, because it is in the middle of such a long series?
Lois McMaster Bujold
A lot of people choose not to read my books, for a lot of reasons. Whether, when, or how any given reader may come to find or to process one's works is beyond the writer's control, and always will be. Still moreso after the writer dies. I mean, really, could any of the many older writers I read have even begun to imagine me, or where their words would fall, and how? The 11th C. Byzantine biographer, for example. Through his book, I could imagine him; the reverse is very much not true.

The one thing I can do that I can control is to try to make each book work as a stand-alone, as well as being part of a larger series structure. I do the best I can, where I am, with what I have, each year. After that, my words are necessarily cast loose on their own, sink or swim.

That said, I am very pleased when my books do work well for someone, as evidently in your case.

Ta, L.
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Lois, like many fans, I am hoping that you will continue to write books in the Vorkosigan series. I enjoyed Captain Vorpatril's Alliance immensely and I've wondered: might other Barrayaran characters have an adventure and book of their own as well - such as Byerly Vorrutyer ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, never say never, but I am not writing at the moment.

Ta, L.
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Do you still get a warm feeling when a reviewer, new to you work, calls your writing masterful? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2z-0RRFYzo&t=2s
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh, sure! Also, the enthusiasm of this reviewer is pretty charming.

But the thing I still marvel at the most is how books that were written with the expectation that they would have a bookstore shelf life of maybe two years are still gaining brand-new readers decades later -- some of whom, alarmingly to me, weren't even born at the time of the works' first publication. To me, that is really beating the odds, especially in a genre that risks becoming dated very rapidly.

Ta, L.
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In "Komarr", Ekaterin notes that Nikki's Vorzohn's Dystrophy would make him ineligible to be a jump pilot. Miles also notes this. But when Nikki is given the retrogenes, are we to assume they were successfully assimilated, and that Nikki is going to become a jump pilot eventually?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answer unknown. Or at least, not made up by me. What career one wants at age 9 can change quite a lot between then and age 20. Or age 30, for that matter. Consider the gap between "wants to ride horses" and "writes science fiction", for a near example.

Ta, L.
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Is the massacre of the Wealdings at Holytree by Audar’s forces based on the Blood court of Verden?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yep, if we're both remembering the name right. Much about that period of Wealdean and Darthacan fictional history jumps off from Charlemagne versus the Saxons. (Itself an extension of the earlier conflict between Romans and Teutons.)

Ta, L.
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Do any of Desdemona‘s rider characters appear in any of your other books? My heart is fuller because of your writing. Thank you for adding joy to my world.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, all of Des's elements are, as it were, native to the 11 Pen & Des tales. No outcrosses.

Ta, L.
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Can Barrayaran and Betan accents be approximated to any existing accents or have you imagined them as something unique?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The reader can suit themselves, but I imagine Betan accents as rather American Midwestern, and Barrayaran as a sort of British actor doing stage Russian.

More realistically, one may imagine them as future English translated into current English, the way we routinely treat languages in fantasy worlds.

Ta, L.
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Are you attending any cons this year?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I will be at Minicon next week, which is right down the road from me, as a local writer guest. I've retired from the con circuit, but this was a special exception for a friend, with no travel. Otherwise not.

Ta, L.
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Hi! I've been told my whole life there is no such thing as a stupid question, so here I go. I was wondering if you have maybe seen the covers of the Croatian edition of the Vorkosigan saga by the amazig Esad Ribic? Your local fans are very proud of this edition (the translation is also amazing!) so I was wondering what do you think of the artwork? https://www.tumblr.com/fuckyeahesadribic/107642144987/vorkosigan-saga-c
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh yes. Copies of my Croatian editions sit on my foreign-rights bookcase. (Bookcases. 4 so far. I try to keep one copy of every title in every printing in every language, when the foreign publishers send them, which they don't always.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold It will vary with the ba, but a tendency to treat them like what used to be called "a red-headed stepchild" rotating with "highly prized science project" is probably baked in. Which can't be a good combo, psychologically.

Ta, L.
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Hi! I'm a fan of your books (both Five Gods and Vorkosigan) and heard you were on a panel about The Untamed! I was wondering if you have watched or are interested in the show Nirvana in Fire, a court intrigue drama that is considered one of the best Chinese TV shows ever? My wife and I keep thinking of some similarities to Vorkosigan due to a physically disabled hero who keeps an intrigue plot moving in creative ways.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nirvana in Fire is on my to-be-watched list -- it will be a considerable time investment. I do have it to hand on viki.com which I'd signed up just to watch the Nie brothers spin-off Fatal Journey, worth it, but viki comes with a million hours of other stuff, eep. My media-watching buddy and I just finished up Word of Honor, which was, hm. Good tour of the genre, about which I know little yet, but none of the characters grabbed me the way The Untamed characters did.

If you (collective you) have any other Asian media recs from viki or Netflix, trot 'em out in the comments. I am, this first pass, mainly interested in fantasy. Do not want crime or horror or grim dystopias or most mainstream, although Extraordinary Attorney Woo turned out to be a winner. (Also on Netflix.) Do not want wall-to-wall angst. I don't need broad comedy, but some sense of humor somewhere in the script is a plus.

Also have watched Hotel Del Luna, Korean mostly-modern fantasy, quite wonderful, recommended. 3-D animation Green Snake also turned out worthwhile, despite its dystopic beginning, which was eventually explained satisfactorily. Once Upon a Time on Lingjian Mountain was very silly, but a good tutorial in xianxia genre tropes and cliches.

(Our The Untamed panel was a bit frustrating -- it was billed as a geek-out, but since half the audience hadn't seen the show, it mainly ended up a pitch session. Trying to describe the show without spoilers and still sound coherent is probably not possible.)

Ta, L.
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Have you ever thought writing a book in the Vorkosigan series that covers the period on Barrayar during the Cetagandan invasion ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Many, many fans have asked, and the answer is no; I do not wish to bathe my brain in that much dire.

Ta, L.
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Just finished re-reading my e-edition of Knot of Shadows. That ending! Grace… that lifted my heart, gave light to some of the dark corners of my thoughts today. Thank you! And ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're most welcome, and yes, I'm glad that ending worked for you as intended. The solution to a different meaning of the word "mystery" than some readers expect, I suppose.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for your life's work. I have been especially taken by the world of the five gods. I just reread Masquerade in Lodi and remain slightly puzzled on P/D's move to Adria. The reasons for his leaving are clear enough -- loss of his two mothers; new archdivine with sorcerer; mismatch with the role of sorcerer-physician etc. But why Adria? D's interest in going there? Met the archdivine of Adria somewhere?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Pen had met the archdivine of Adria at a Temple conclave in Carpagamo a few years back that he'd attended in his own princess-archdivine's train. I've always felt that event and setting ought to have a story-worthy plot attached, but I've never been able to come up with one. So a combination of reasonable proximity, some acquaintance, and, as many people anxiously circulating resumes find the clincher, an actual offer.

Also, warmer climate.

Ta, L.
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I've just been reading Mirror Dance, and have to ask if we'll ever get a story or novella covering the Vor's "Incendiary Cat Plot"... Please?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. Probably not. It lives in the same throwaway-line box as the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant. (A famous throwaway line from Sherlock Holmes, never followed up on... by its original author.)
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I am suffering from Pen and Des deprivation. Sigh. So since I need to ask you a question, now in this period of your life, where you are hopefully enjoying the well deserved fruits of your labor, what sort of things have moved you to pick up a pen? (sounds better than go to the computer.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, no motivation at present. I've been dividing my attention this past year between home maintenance and renovation, Asian media, and far too much Spider Solitaire, which crept back onto my tablet after I'd bravely booted it off. Weirdly soothing, but very much what my mother would have dubbed "a sinful waste of time." The home maintenance projects, at least, must come to an end soon.

L.
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Not a question, but I just got my hardback copy of Knot of Shadows from Subterranean Press. I really would like to attach a picture of the cover to show others how wonderful it is. That really is how I see Pen as a young mature man. The quality of the book itself is great, too. Thank you? (To get the ? )
Lois McMaster Bujold I'm very pleased with this edition, too!

Folks who want to see the cover can view it on SubPress's website,

https://subterraneanpress.com/knot-of...

Ta, L.
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Are all your books out to libraries?
Lois McMaster Bujold That will depend on the individual library; whether they have purchased my titles for their collection, and/or have not, what is that weasel-word, "de-accessioned" them.

Most of my books are still available on paper in one form or another, and Blackstone keeps all my titles available as downloadable audiobooks. Anyone who wants to see a particular title in their local collection needs to ask their local library.

Oh, I should add, I have several e-titles available to libraries through OverDrive.

Ta, L.
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Are you going to let Miles have his day in the sun? You allude to his secrets aging out in "Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen". It would be a blast to have it as a domestic comedy, similar to "A Civil Campaign". After all, once one secret is out, all the rest come out.
Lois McMaster Bujold No plans at this time.

...Not just in this context, I reflect that there is an interesting sort of readerly mania, or perhaps narrative tension, that if a secret is shown a story, it must be Outed before the end. I wonder why that is. Conditioning by the mystery genre...?

Ta, L.
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How did you get out of a writing block if you ever had one?
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are two kinds of block for me. One I might dub a "local block", where I am stuck for a time on what turn the next bit of a work in progress should take, because I haven't yet thought of a good enough one, or I've thought of a bad one and my characters go on sit-down strike till they're offered better wages. It may last for weeks, but by now I recognize it as part of my normal process. It was only a problem back when I had deadline pressures, though a story does have its own internal narrative drive as well -- "the work demands its own completion" is the way I've phrased it.

The other is more internal, or perhaps global, what a friend of mine dubs "a general disinclination to write." I may be in one of those at the moment, though it's kind of hard to distinguish from "being retired". Or maybe just being tired. It would go away on its own if I had an idea that gripped me harder than whatever life distractions I have, I suspect.

Ta, L..
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Thank you so much for your wonderful books-- they have provided so much solace and entertainment to me in hard times. After much patient eBay stalking, I've finally managed to obtain a copy of every Vorkosigan book published by Easton Press. Will Easton Press ever continue with their leather bound editions of the series?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I haven't heard from Easton Press in years and years, so probably not.

I'm not actually sure what speculative fiction Easton is publishing these days, but I suspect it would run to hot new frontlist bestsellers, not quiet evergreens like my current stuff.

("Evergreens'", in this context, is a publishing term-of-art for books that aren't or never were bestsellers, but continue to sell in modest numbers for year after year into multiple decades. The Warrior's Apprentice would be a good example -- never a best seller, never won an award, never out of print for, now, 37 years. The Tortoise can definitely win in the word-of-mouth race.)

Ta, L.
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My father died this morning. Once I was alone, the first thing I did was open my copy of Memory and start rereading it. Thank you for the comfort. (No ?. Just my thanks.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am sorry for your loss, whatever form it took. I'm glad my work can serve you, in this or any other need

best wishes, Lois.
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Is Tripoint Pittsburgh? Relistening to SK series for the umpteenth time and remembered staying in a hotel across from Three Rivers Stadium. Also a question came up on Facebook. Barr and Remo watched Dag unbeguile but can they also do it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the rough & ready sort of way I'm taking inspiration from Midwestern American rather than the bog-standard European models for fantasy worlds, yep, Pittsburgh. (My parents' hometown, btw.)

Barr and Remo can probably learn how to do unbeguiling much as they learn other groundwork, as their skills and strength grow. Some Lakewalkers will doubtless be better or worse at it than others, through innate capacity or personal psychology.

Ta, L.
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Did you know that one of next Saturday's Derby contenders is Lord Miles? Do you think the breeder's a fan? He has Triple Crown winners Seattle Slew & Secretariat behind him, as well as Man O'War twice, & won the Wood Memorial, so he's got a shot.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh! No, I did not. Not the first mammal named after one of my characters, if so. Forward momentum, Miles, I guess...

Ta, L.
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Just rereading "Knot of Shadows" and had a whimsical thought. Do you think, when Foix goes for his training as a sorcerer that Penric's books will be a part of his required reading?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not impossible. When last seen Pen had not yet gotten around to his Ibran translation, but there's plenty of time (and time for downstream translators) yet. Not to mention seminary libraries would likely have books in neighboring languages, as academic libraries tend to do.

Ta, L.
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Did you hear that Lord Miles was withdrawn from the Derby? It eerily echoes the fictional Lord Miles getting pulled from the "race" and path he had so aspired to (only it was another horse that tragically broke its leg, leading to the withdrawal). Will Lord Miles the horse be able to find an alternate path forward as did the fictional Miles? We await the outcome.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I haven't been following that, tho' someone else had mentioned the horse name, but interesting to know!

Ta, L.
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Penric can get water from the air, and also turn it to ice. I wonder what else? Purify seawater (any advantage over air?)? Concentrate alcoholic drinks (like winter wine but faster)? Separate water into hydrogen and oxygen (for what purpose?)? Weld objects together (maybe not just metals)? Heat food like a microwave oven, or freeze it? Nuclear fission, probably not. Nuclear fusion, surely not.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good questions. Purify seawater, sure; it just needs evaporated and condensed, tho' if one is in/by the sea, the air should be damp enough to skip step one. Ice wine, yes. Break down water molecules, not sure. Heating/cooling/cooking, maybe on a very small scale. (Mustn't overheat the sorcerer!) He would of course have to deal with the waste heat/waste chaos.

If science advances in this world, a very open question, I'm sure Pen would follow along and try to work out even more clever sorcery as insights emerge.

Ta, L.
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Reading the Vorkosigan Saga inspired me to pick up drawing after a 10-year hiatus and draw some fanart, of which there's a sad dearth. What fanart I saw puts the Barrayaran women in Victorian/Edwardian-style clothing, while I've always imagined them in 1930-early 1960s clothing (boleros, calf-length skirts, skirt and blouse combos). Am I right and did you have any other fashion inspo I should take into consideration?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Your vision maps more closely to mine. Not Victorian, certainly. Late Edwardian can be rather nice, but later still is probably better.

Nevertheless, fanac is for the fans; folks can envision whatever best pleases them, mostly. (I have one friend who insists she will always see Ivan as blond. Um.)

I am not a fashion designer, though I fake being one in prose. (I mostly care about colors.) Anyone with a better eye/hand is welcome to have a go. Have fun!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Dono, like every other count, will always have problems. I suspect By's roles will just be one more in the array. Meanwhile, though, By has been shipped off out of sight and out of mind, which should cool interest as new and better high Vor scandals come up to capture the public eye.

Ta, L.
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“For God's sake, don't drive the boy into hysterics, Vassily. They can keep it up for hours. And everybody stares at you as if you were the reincarnation of Pierre Le Sanguinaire. Little old ladies come up and threaten you—” Personal experience or observing humanity? :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Both. :-)

Also, Hugo is an experienced da, which Vassily is not.

L.
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Is there going to be another Penric and Desdemona? (If you've already answered this, my apologies.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Don't know. I am not averse, but no new idea has gripped me yet. There is nothing presently in the pipeline, anyway.

Ta, L.
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What do you imagine Dag and Arkady (and Sumac) use as their camp names, given they're not living in a Lakewalker camp any more? And do you feel that Dag might ever reconcile with Hickory Lake and regain at least a little of the camp credit that was being held?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Dag lets his camp name go, or maybe adopts Clearcreek. Arkady and Sumac likely keep Hickory Lake, as they still go there part time, and are too valuable to spurn.

No idea on the camp credit. Dag might recover some; some he might be able to generationally transfer to Sumac and her sibs. I can see Sumac passing back some under the table, or maybe not so under, to Dag as a face-saving way to make restitution without the camp council ever having to admit wrongdoing.

Ta, L.
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I love your work and my all time favorite series (not just of yours) is The Sharing Knife. I'm in a intercultural marriage so this series really hit home for me. One thing I admire about characters you write is that you show their intelligence. I always feel like I learn from your them. Could share any insight or tidbits on how you developed Dag and Fawn?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's been a while... A lot of things about Dag & Fawn arrived together -- both of their starting-points at first meeting (Dag with a longer, but not more important, backstory than Fawn), their ages and heights, the uneven command of magic but equal smarts (actually, Fawn has the edge there, camouflaged by her lack of experience) the bare basics but not yet all the details of their respective cultures and families and world history, much of which was developed as the story went along.

Having set up their bare-bones backstories, I basically set the pair in motion in the opening scenes and let them show me their tale as they moved through it, adding more characters and material as needs arose. We were frequently all of us surprised.

The first two volumes were initially a single bigger one, split on publication, but ending on a down-ish if promising note. There was plainly more tale to be told and more world to be explored as both characters broke free from the constraints of family and clan and found new room to grow; the second pair of volumes became the "there and back again" of all that.

Ta, L.
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Sometime in the past week, a question came by that I answered but apparently sent into oblivion. If the question wants to try another go, I will try to do better. ...?
Lois McMaster Bujold As above.

Huh. GR just rejected this as being "too short". How prescriptive.
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Bit of an odd question, but, what was the inspiration behind the name of the planet Escobar?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I pulled it out of the air, having seen it I-don't-remember where (this would have been in 1983), for something sounding vaguely Spanish-y not-Anglo-Saxon. Trying to indicate, despite the books being written in then-20th. C. English, that all the other major languages and peoples were still Out There.

I don't care to salt my prose with SF or fantasy neologisms to the point of making it indigestible, so the reader may take this thousand-years-from-now English, which ought to be profoundly altered by then, as being translated back for them by the narrative, just like the Penric tales where the people are all speaking Wealdean or Cedonian.

Ta, L.
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Does it get harder to write about Miles as he gets older, less eager to travel, more valuable to Gregor at home, and with various medical problems? Stroke history on paternal side plus seizure disorder.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, there's all that, plus the genre expectation for each story being more "important" than all the prior, as well as "different", which is another moving target. Easy enough when one is writing the second story of two; harder when it's the umpteenth of whatever it is by now.

(Also, much of that description of the annoyances of aging now applies to me, except, thankfully, seizure disorder.)

Should I generate a story idea fresh enough to get me excited, there is no reason I can't write, but that internal threshold has become rather high. Plus I'm drowning in new media distractions, previously unavailable or nonexistent (streaming!) which is something like going out for a dinner someone else has cooked. Reduces motivation; I don't have to run an internal television just to be fed/entertained.

So the short answer is probably "Yes."

Ta, L.
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Your books are my all-time favourites. My to go book whenever I am sad or sick is A Civil Campaign. But I love all the others, too. Penrik, Sharing knife,... Will there by any more? I would love to hear how Miles copes with his children, who will probably be as brilliant and maybe as hyperactive as he is. Or maybe about some of the secondary characters? Byerly, Elli, ...
Lois McMaster Bujold Glad you have enjoyed my work!

I have no idea when, or if, there will be anything more, or what it would look like should it get here. I can say there is nothing in progress or in the pipeline right at the moment (July 2023.)

I am, actually, not the same writer or person who wrote those books back in the 80s and 90s; they say that in 20 years, even your bones replace themselves. So writing "more of the same" would be as much of a stretch as trying to write a pastiche of another writer. (Or, more weirdly, trying to write my own fanfiction. Though that notion may be too self-limiting.) Though I'm immensely thankful those books have lasted till now, and are still finding new readers.

Ta, L.
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My husband and I enjoy reading together in the evening, and thanks to one of your previous answers we recently finished Cotillion. Thanks for the recommendation! How had we missed Heyer before? I would guess that her characters and comedy significantly influenced later generations of authors.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Heyer has been a huge influence on authors in several genres, Romance obviously, but also science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. For an author whose work has never been out of print for over a century (her first book was published in 1917, I believe) she is remarkably overlooked by the sort of people who make up those Important Books of the 20th Century lists. Reasons why left as an exercise for the student.

The two not necessarily mutually exclusive ideas I've seen for why a book/writer is considered great are, a) it is beloved by many people over generational time, or b) it changes how books that come after it are written. Hearts and minds, as it were. Heyer certainly hits both metrics.

Ta, L.
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First, thank you for all you've written, especially the Vorkosigan Saga; Aral and Jole and Cordelia's relationship meant a lot to me; I've been in a similar position to Jole's re: Aral (age, power, love), and "but he's ooold! it's immoral! how dare?" But re: the Betan herms. I know they're not intersex, but I am, and reading them meant a lot to me. I'd been wondering if there was any early Moravian influence there?
Lois McMaster Bujold
First, I'm glad my work found resonance for you!

I'm afraid I don't know what "Moravian influence" might be. ??

Thanks for getting the difference between my (presently) fictional bioengineered herms, and natural intersex, tho' you would seem to be in a good position to appreciate the nuance. A lot of my future biotech echoes concerns of today, part of why readers find it interesting, but the science does make a difference. Though at the rate biology is progressing, I don't think we'll have to wait 1000 years for some of my SF speculation to become real. (Let's hope it's the nicer parts, and not the scarier ones!)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't see how to answer this private question privately -- if anyone has tips for sending/originating GR messages (as contrasted with replying to them, which is what I mostly do) shout out.

Anyway, no, I don't wish to commit to this.

Good luck with your con --

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois - I am currently a member of a jury for a homicide case. The last three weeks have been very tough intellectually and emotionally. Two days ago I re--read "A Civil Campaign." It was exactly what I needed to lighten my spirit. Yesterday I re-read "Shards of Honor" - one of my all-time favorite books - and that helped too. I love your books, but they are especially dear to me now. Thank you. ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are most welcome, and oh boy howdy, that sounds like a tough duty. Best of luck to you, and thank you for your civic service, which is one most people don't think about till it taps them on the shoulder.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois! I have thoroughly enjoyed the adventures of the Vorkosigans. The last book that I read was Gentkeman Joke and the Red Queen. Will you be going back into that serious or have I missed something? Cheers and thank you for hours of pleasurable reading
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you have enjoyed my books!

I don't have anything else planned for the Vorkosigan series at this time. If you haven't found them yet, I have two (or three) fantasy series and one fantasy stand-alone still out there to explore: The Sharing Knife (4 books and 1 novella), The World of the Five Gods (3 novels, plus the Penric & Desdemona sub-series of 10 novellas and 1 novel) and the singleton The Spirit Ring.

Ta, L.
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Hello! A couple of questions ago you mentioned A Warrior's Apprentice as one of your evergreens, having never won awards (among some other criteria), which I'm so shocked by! I read it in high school and one of its lines is now memorialized as my senior year quote (too embarrassed to say which one). I've now graduated from college and still go back to it every year. Thanks for writing it all those years ago <3 [?]
Lois McMaster Bujold You are welcome!

I was, I think, too new in the marketplace at time time (1986) for the book to have attracted notice from enough readers for an award. The Hugo award for The Vor Game, a couple of years later when I'd gained more visibility, was something in the nature of compensation, I feel. And the Nebula for Falling Free I attribute in part to its serialization in Analog Magazine, which brought it before a lot more reader-voters than might have encountered it otherwise. Awards are very much an intersection of skill, work, and luck -- the skill and work, which are under a writer's control, are required to put one in the pool that luck, which is not, may fall upon.

What's important, then and now, is that the book is still finding readers, which I'd always felt was the main utility of winning an award, one more bit of advertising. If the work can find its readers without same, that's just as good.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
That alternate universe sounds like fanfic bait... There are many different ways it could play out, positive or negative.

I think Nefertiti would be happier with Jin, actually. And vice versa. I do see the appeal of gene-engineered pets, though.

Ta, L.
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Will we see a new entry in the Vorkosigan Saga? It has been 8 years since the last novel and it would be nice to see Miles and the gang in action again.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is planned or in progress at this time.

I've got a lot of home repairs done this year, though...

Ta, L.
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If I did the math correctly, Penric would be in his seventies when the Golden General starts his rise. I was wondering how those events might impact him and Desdemona? I'm guessing they'd be geographically far enough away to be unaffected by the politics (and war), but the propagation of demons that happened during that time frame could have further implications for the Bastard's divines.
Lois McMaster Bujold
All good speculations!

I have not, at the moment, made any decisions about where Pen & Des are going long term, or even next, except I suppose that they will go together.

I'm not even sure "till death do you part" applies, at least from Des's viewpoints.

Ta, L.
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It would be so much fun to see Miles deal with aliens and what kind of aliens Ms. Bujold would create. The Moties in The Mote in Gods Eye were great. How about it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not in Miles's universe -- it's the Bioengineering-R-Us future. There will be some very alien intelligent species in not many more centuries and millennia, but they will all be descended from Earth humans.

For an earlier model of the idea, see Cordwainer Smith's excellent Tales of the Instrumentality series.

We've already seen Miles dealing with the proto-versions of these -- quaddies, Betan herms, Guppy the somewhat one-off merman, arguably the Cetagandans. Heavy-worlders have been mentioned but not met. Miles's century is as it were a snapshot out of the early part of a much longer movie of radiating human evolution.

Ta, L.
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If a story occurs to you, will we be eager to read it? You bet we will! Meanwhile, enjoy your not-writing time
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks!

If a story idea occurs that's sufficiently compelling, there's little to stop me. (Except a million hours of media at my fingertips.) House stuff seems almost done, until something else breaks. Though the Mark I brain does seem to be running on a slower clock speed these days, sigh.

Ta, L.
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What would Arianne Emory (a character of C.J. Cherryh's) to this species radiation, one wonders?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You can speculate away, I guess.

Ta, L.
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I've been seeing comments by other authors about fake, AI-written books being published on Amazon with their name attached. Is this something that you've seen or experienced? Have you given thought to trademarking your name to give you additional ammo against the e-book sites if someone does start trying to publish fake books under your name?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hah, no, I hadn't seen that (yet). I will try to be more aware.

Trademarking is a non-trivial exercise and ongoing expense, so not something I'd rush to do until forced.

Ta, L,
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Hi, huge fan here. Do you have any idea why ebook versions of the Penric & Des novellas are not available on Libby/Overdrive, but the audiobooks are? I'm on several libraries and the only ebook is "Penric's Demon." Usually there is an option to recommend books that your library does not have, but it's like the rest of the ebooks aren't even in Overdrive's system, even though they exist on amazon.
Lois McMaster Bujold
We have not licensed them to Overdrive. "Penric's Demon" and a few other titles were an experiment in that direction, undertaken with a lot of hassle -- Overdrive doesn't make it easy -- which fizzled out. Rather disappointing.

Blackstone markets their audiobooks to libraries (and everywhere else.) I have no idea how they make them work -- I suspect they have a dedicated department to deal with the details -- but I'm glad they apparently succeed.

Ta, L.
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I’ve noticed similarities between how the gods in the Queen’s Thief world treat their god touched with the gods in the World of 5 gods. Was that part of what drew you to those books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
What drew me most to the Queen's Thief was (as usual) the characters, Gen and Irene and their peculiar romance of course, but also the rest of the cast. I also enjoyed the worldbuilding. The gods weren't bad, but the QT gods are much more, hm, Greek, local, and humanoid, than the Five. But in both series, properly rare and disturbing when they enter the mortal plane, a logical commonality given their in-world realities.

Ta, L.
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In one of your replies to another question, you mention Clee and his brother slipping Penric a sedative or poison. Which book is this in? Is it possible that I've missed one? Embarrassing if so, but also good because I'd get to read it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)
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What is the difference between a petty saint and a regular saint in the 5 gods universe? I am thinking especially of the petty saint of the Father, a Sargent in Assassins of Thallion and the "full" saint of the Bastard, Dubro.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not really a difference in kind, but a difference in size. Rather like seeing sunlight through a pinhole in tent versus a large window, or, in the best case, a large doorway. Iroki (not Dubro, he was the sorcerer) got, or more accurately was, a large window. Cazaril was a doorway, eventually, though he had to grow into it.

Most petty saints get a pinhole or maybe a thumb hole at most. The aperture depends on the character of the person, not of the gods who are everywhere and always the same, and too vast for any one person's perceptions, no matter how wide, to take in entire.

Ta, L.
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Sorry about the mysterious terminology! The Moravians were/are a radical Protestant sect who considered both main sexes equally divine, and so believed that in order to be fully deified, Jesus had to be feminine as well as masculine, so the side wound gave him a sacred vulva, sort of. (Also saw sex as a form of prayer, but the ways this worked got kind of rigid/surveillancy) They still exist, but are less radical now?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for the terminology clarification! Yeah, real-world religions are more deeply weird than anything a writer can make up.

As a general note for the future, such should go down in the comments section of the post they are talking about, because otherwise they will be bewilderingly separated from their context.

Ta, L.
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(but I think by saying you weren’t sure what Moravian meant you already answered my question. Sorry! I just could not stop thinking about a planet that seems very Christian in their makeup and yet were so radically socially progressive about gender and sex, and the herm population always made me think of them. question mark to satisfy the ask-field-robot)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
To reiterate, interesting, but should go in the comments section of the Q&A post they are discussing. Goodreads used to serve up Q&As in completely random order ("relevant" and "popular" both totally scramble chronological order.) It took a while for GR even to offer the ability to choose order, but I'm not sure where that button went. And there's no search function beyond a general google search if one can remember enough key phrases, which is like using a sledgehammer for a gnat.

Ta, L.
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Will The Assassins of Thasalon ever be published as a mass market paperback? I prefer a book in my hand rather than an ebook. (Sorry if you've already addressed this.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
At this time, I don't know. It has aged out of its license period at Subterranean Press, so a reprint is contractually possible. Because it's a shortish novel, and "Knot of Shadows" is a shortish novella, I thought the two would make a good compendium pairing, a 4th Pen & Des omnibus volume, and we have indeed marketed them that way for foreign rights under the title Penric's Intrigues, not that foreign publishers don't change the titles anyway. So far it's sold to Japan, where the prior volumes have done OK. "Knot of Shadows" is not out of its SubPress 1-year US license yet, though, having only come out this past January. So, we'll all have to wait and see.

Ta, L.
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I am a huge fan of the Vorkosigan series. Especially, as I was born with a mild form of dwarfism. Being different means you have much more to overcome to just reach normal levels of achievement. What inspired you to make Miles different? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
In the early 80s, when I first came up with Miles, I wasn't thinking in those real-world terms at all. Well, only insofar as one wants one's action hero to be distinguishable from all the others on the market. In particular, thwarted from direct physical/violent solutions, I wanted him forced to use his brains. (*)

Like other people, Miles began with his parents -- I had the basic idea for him and his physical (if not mental, though I suppose emotional) challenges during the writing of Shards of Honor back in 1983; I'd written the first draft of that up through the soltoxin attack before I circled back and found the current ending. The writing (and, eventually, publication) of The Warrior's Apprentice came next, as I set out to explore things I'd set up in the first book. It all grew chapter by chapter in the writing, so, more discovery than decision. (As a rule, my writing explores people, not issues, though I grant from an outside view issues do sometimes seem to come along for the ride.)

* -- I've since wondered, watching all those 15-y-o anime heroes begging their masters to make them stronger, why not one ever begs their master to make them smarter. It seems a much more urgent need...

Ta, L.
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When you first created Barrayar way back, did you think it would be interesting to make the cultural conservatives sort of pro abortion, and the Galactics sort of anti? I know this oversimplified, hence the sort ofs.
Lois McMaster Bujold
No.

What drives the differences in the cultural choices is not ideology, but technology (and its partner economics) which both creates and constrains the ambit of the possible. For all cultures, not just fictional ones.

Ta, L.
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I am in love with The World of the Five Gods and am also an avid book collector. Would you ever do a release of Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt through Subterranean Press to match the Penric and Desdemona books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, that would be up to Subterranean. While HarperCollins still holds hardcover rights, a limited print run of signed editions might be allowable under present contracts -- a question for one's agent. But, really, I don't see how SubPress could compete economically with the used (and new, according to Amazon) hardcovers still floating about the market, some at quite low cost.

Ta, L.
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'Should I start calling Illyan Da, or challenge him to a duel?' I've re-read these books 20 times each in last few decades. This line just made me laugh out loud, again, and I wanted to say thank you. Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are most welcome!

(And, I'm glad the books stand up to so many rereads. Bodes well for their future.)

Ta, L.
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Did you see David McCallum passed away?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I did not. Thanks for passing the news.

End of an era... The Man From U.N.C.L.E and specifically his character was one of my first junior high fannish delights.

Ta, L,
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Hi Lois, big fan of your books. For the Vorkosigan saga there were some audiobooks by Carol Cowan and Michael Hanson, do you know if and where they can be found? Thanks
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wow, that's a blast from the past. The books on audio cassette are long out of production, but I have a few lurking in a box in a closet that are doing no one any good. Contact me through Goodreads private messaging for more information, if you are determined.

Otherwise, used book vendors such as Abebooks, Half-Price Books, or Amazon might have a trail.

Ta, L.
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There are certain authors that I will immediately order/preorder their new book, but will then save said book to read as a reward or to consume in pure happiness because I know the writing, plot, world-building, etc are top notch and will not disappoint. You, T. Kingfisher, Alma T.C. Boykin, James Benn, (Terry Pratchett, alas) are some of my very favorites. Are there authors or series about which you feel similarly?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I'm hanging on to the last Pratchett, though not because I think it will make me happy, but because I suspect it will make me sad.

At the moment, I'm mostly going on to the next whatever because it has sustained my curiosity, at least for a time. But otherwise it's been browsing the infinite entertainment smorgasbord and mostly not finding the next gripping thing. Temporarily amusing, yes, I have found that.

The things I've most gotten into lately have all been finished works. The Asian live-action fantasy TV shows The Untamed and Hotel Del Luna (both on Netflix) have been the biggest recent hits. Also recently found (on Rakuten Viki) worth mention is the 3-D animation The Island of Siliang, unfinished at present. Astounding production quality. I'd be ecstatic to have any work of mine done so well in that medium.

Ta, L.
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Yeah, I just saw his picture on YouTube yesterday. Wasn't Kuryakin way cooler than Solo?
Lois McMaster Bujold I always thought so!

L.
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Hello Lois! A while back I read somewhere that when you were writing A Civil Campaign you originally had a draft where Ivan and By had to hide a body, which you scrapped because it didn’t fit the tone of a comedy of manners. Is there any chance you could tell us what the gist of that scrapped storyline was? (Whose body was it?) I’m dying to know! :-) Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful stories with us!
Lois McMaster Bujold Hiya!

It never went as far as a draft, just unsatisfactory planning notes scrapped instantly when I had a much better idea. I don't actually remember who the victim was supposed to be, possibly Richars, but I do recall a plan to plant him in the garden under/in where the structural construction work was going on, under the walkway. Sort of like those murder victims who end up under a basement with new concrete floor poured over them.

It would have given Ekaterin's new gift garden an awfully weird vibe. Donna/Dono was a much better way to thwart Richars' nefarious plans, and was actual science fiction for a bonus win.

Not that by and Ivan, not to mention Dono, aren't all perfectly capable of hiding a body at need, mind.

Ta, L.
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I have discovered audiobooks and they have changed my life! I no longer dread long drives, I look forward to them. I own all your books in both print and e-book so I am using the library for the audio versions. The problem is the name pronunications. Some are not at all like I thought so it sounds like a different person. How do YOU pronounce dy Ferrej? Both parts...
Lois McMaster Bujold Ayup, sometimes the narrators call me to get my pronunciations, sometimes they don't.

I pronounce dy Ferrej as dee Fer-ezjh, French J not Spanish.

...I can usually tell when someone is from the west of southwest when they give my name the Spanish j, Boo-hold. Nope, French, Bu-zjhold.

Ta, L.
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I love Miles, flaws and all, as much as it is possible to love a fictional character. However, I find Cordelia the much more compelling character. While Miles’ intelligence is unparalleled, Cordelia has a consistent wisdom that Miles seems to mostly hit at apogee. And, from my point of view, intelligence and critical thinking are major factors in acquiring wisdom. Thoughts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, there are reasons Cordelia's tale bookends the series.

Which is about all I have to say, but others may want to chime in at the comments.

It's interesting to look at the series as a whole in light of the recently read The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carringer, which I reviewed in my My Books section here. Structurally speaking. Because the VK Saga actually doesn't end in the series-expected hero's War to End Wars, and that is very much on purpose.

Ta, L.
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TIL of actual emerald spectacles and thought immediately of Master Bosha's glass ones, but thought you might be amused, if you had not heard of them before? If you wish to see them, there's a listing at Sotheby's, and elsewhere online; "Mughal spectacles set with emerald lenses, in diamond-mounted frames, India, lenses circa 17th century." The diamonds were a later addition.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Goodness, those are a hoot. Thanks for sharing!

Bosha's protective spectacles were a more modest green glass and brass, but I'm happy to see sunglasses weren't so out-of-period after all.

Ta, L.
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Writer/director here. Thx for Heyer & Crusie. Thx for Siliang Island. Amazing what a few artsy geeks can do in an office in Beijing. The young Keanu avatar was a fun touch. The millennial-authored "Red White & Royal Blue" has abundant high spirits, romance, comedy, heart & old fashioned big stakes: when worlds collide. You might like it? As usual, the book's more fun than the movie, but one actor delights. Ciao.
Lois McMaster Bujold You're welcome! I haven't found anything lately to top Siliang Island, (found on the streaming site Rakuten Viki) though I keep scrounging. Although there was a recent manga-faithful remake of the story-essential Hazel arc of Saiyuki Reload, now dubbed Saiyuki Reload Zeroin, that was a wonderful correction to the incoherent mess the earlier anime makers made of it, now with Ukoku done right, and a DVD release I just found of Saiyuki Reload Burial, mine now. Though Saiyuki is perhaps an acquired taste. (And the static 90s-crude polar opposite in animation style to the elegant Siliang, so requires some tolerance.)

Otherwise nothing too compelling, although the animation of My Heroic Husband was fairly entertaining. Haven't got far into the live-action version yet. Also recent, Link Click started interesting, got much too serial-killery for me by the end of season 1, have not yet sampled season 2. When all that fails, it's back to the bottomless bin of Great Courses on Wondrium.com.

This would be a good place for commenters to share media finds with each other.

Ta, L.
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Has anyone ever approached you about adapting any of your work to film/television?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, no one (so far) actually capable of doing so. It takes, not a script writer or wannabe writer, but a producer with, or with control of, more money than I've ever seen in my life to make even the most modest adaptation. These folks, very limited in number, are understandably choosy about what they bet their bank upon.

My literary agent has a media rights agent who handles these things, findable through Spectrum or, I suppose, if one is in the know about the media biz. (Which is not me.) As they've not succeeded in licensing my work in a quarter century (and they have tried!), I'm no longer holding my breath. Though they have been successful in not tying my work up with folks who can't actually, in both senses, produce, so that's a plus.

Ta, L.
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Hi, Lois! It’s Mary from the Mysteries from the Yard era. Whenever I feel really down, there are three books that I turn to, reading several time a year (life’s a b—- and all…): Gaudy Night, Pride and Prejudice, and A Civil Campaign. It strikes me that I have never asked which books from Charlotte and Georgette you turn to? I especially would love to know - what is your favorite Heyer title?
Lois McMaster Bujold Hi Mary! Hope you are well! (Well, well-enough, at our ages.)

I don't have one favorite Heyer, but I do have a top tier. In no particular order, Cotillion, The Reluctant Widow, The Toll Gate, The Unknown Ajax, The Convenient Marriage, A Civil Contract, Sprig Muslin, The Foundling, maybe The Black Sheep... which adds up to about a third of her output.

Which, I note, trends away from her early Rake heroes and onto the later more sensible dudes. Well, not so sure about Freddy, but he's certainly not a rake. And the hero of The Black Sheep reformed himself, sort of, well before the heroine arrived.

Charlotte, not so much, but she is an early founding mother so could not be left out of my dedication list.

Ta, L.
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This is a thank you to Mary for asking the question & to you for reminding me that it is time to start my periodic re-reading of Georgette’s regencies. I was a senior in college in1971 when my roommate gave me a Georgette. I collected all of her works in paperback. As they started falling apart I collected reissues. Now they are all on my Kindle. Maybe that is why I like your work so much - a common love of Georgetta?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not the only connection, I daresay, but I won't deny it.

:-), L.
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Would you consider sharing the final chapter of Shards of Honor "Aftermath" on social media, or in some free publication? I feel it would bring people a great deal of comfort at this moment in history.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm not on any social media apart from this blog, so, no, sorry.

(Possibly stop doomscrolling...?)

Ta, L.
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Reading Sharing Knife for the 4th or 5th time, and just finished the part where Dag sees inside the woman with appendicitis. I started thinking that was very similar to what Pen&Des can do. Then I realized that when Dag gives a 'ground reinforcement', it's almost exactly the same as Pen giving a dose of 'uphill magic'. Imagine my excitement! Have you ever thought that there are people who can actually do that?
Lois McMaster Bujold
In real life, no, sadly.

My two fictional worlds take their similarities from my own ad hoc grounding in biology and medicine, I think. Given human bodies, there are only so many things that can be done with them unless one is going to unmoor one's magic system entirely from any physical realism. Which is a perfectly fine fantasy narrative choice, just not the one I made for these two universes.

Ta, L.
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Happy, happy birthday. May the next year bring you health, wealth & cheer. Especially health. I’m grateful to have found your books. Required ?
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you! (I'm hopeful for health myself, though wealth and cheer are also welcome...)

bests, Lois.
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Happy Birthday, to my favorite author. I hope it was awesome?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Very pleasant, yes! A friend over for dinner, strange Asian media for dessert...

Ta, L.
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Thank you for continuing to publish your books in Mass Market format. I have thousands of books in my house and there wouldn't be room for me if they were all in Hardcover or Trade format. Please continue ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That choice is not up to me; your thanks are due to my publishers.

Although I do need to thank the readers (such as yourself) who keep buying enough of them to make them profitable to keep in print. Print book economics are pretty vicious.

Ta, L.
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Happy Birthday Lois! Big fan here. I'd read anything that you write. Brilliant characters and an always engrossing plot. Question mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

bests, Lois.
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How does it feel to be a visionary? https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/11/12/biggest-insect-farm-record/ "The race is on to build the world’s biggest bug farm. A nascent drive to cut greenhouse emissions from animal feed has spawned a new industry, that promises to one day produce vast amounts of protein* with fewer greenhouse emissions than traditional suppliers." *for pets, fish and livestock.
Lois McMaster Bujold
The site blocks me from reading this -- can you give a short summary in the comments?

L.
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Hi Lois, I'm reading through the Vorkosigan saga for the first time and I am a big fan! I have been referencing your great GoodReads article for the past couple years to know what to read next.Unfortunately the link is now broken. Is this some kind of mistake? Was the post taken down on purpose? Thanks! https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/293438-the-vorkosigan-saga-reading-order-debate-the-chef-recommends
Lois McMaster Bujold
Welcome to my work!

Yes, that old link is broken. It was nixed when Goodreads took away its space for people's personal writings, a year or two ago.

The Bujold reading-order guide has been moved here:

https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Th...

This is the link that should now be passed around, replacing the prior.

The whole site is worth a visit -- it's owned & run by one volunteer fan, who could likely use some volunteer help. Being a wiki 'n all.

There is also a wiki for the World of the Five Gods, here:

https://chalion.fandom.com/wiki/The_C...

Hope this helps -- L.
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Re the bug farm question, this is a gift link to the article. I hope it works for you? https://wapo.st/3QMFq5s Love your work for a long time. Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold Aha, that link worked for me. Thanks!

I see the article writer was having fun at their job...

L.
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In Penric's time it seems like every petty lord had a sorcerer, but by Cazaril's time they're rare. What happened in between?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mainly, because they are in two different countries. Caz's peninsula had been well worked-over by Quadrene conquerors bent on stamping out sorcery altogether, and even the areas that have been subsequently reconquered have not totally recovered that culture by Caz's time. So the Ibran peninsula is behind. It will catch up with its neighbors in another generation.

(As retcons go, pretty plausible, I think...)

And also because Penric is paying a lot more attention to these matters than Caz, as it's his profession. It's like the difference between a bridge builder and a bridge user.

We may also note that Pen, so far, has not completed any Ibran translation of his growing body of work. Perhaps he never gets around to it...

Ta, L.
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Have you ever thought about writing about Barrayar's rediscovery? I imagine an excited Betan Astronomical Survey thinking they'd discovered a new planet, then being utterly stumped. Or the locals, suddenly being visited from outer space! (I'm surprised I haven't found any fanfic dealing with that).
Lois McMaster Bujold While this does seem a fun idea for fanficcers, I don't imagine I will write in that direction.

Ta, L.
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Happy Holidays, Lois. I am rereading Penric's novellas, and I was struck at how much Penric changed between the first novella and the second. What experiences did he go through that gave him so much self-confidence? (If you would prefer, feel free to write another novella talking about those years :) )
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't know if I will write a novella or story set in Pen's college/seminary years -- it would depend on me hitting just the right-sized idea -- but they were a pretty intense time for him and a big change from his restricted youth in the rural mountains. The life of the mind opened up for him there. Plus he was assimilating Des, an even larger store of experience. Plus, y'know, he'd lately met his god, which ought to be life-changing for anyone.

The one bit of head-canon I have for him was that he actually did have a girlfriend there for a while, a music student. Alas, she graduated and went to be a Temple choirmaster elsewhere, and married someone less complicated and high-maintenance, the way ya do. (Though she never forgot his baritone.)

Ta, L.
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Hello! I've just started Shards of Honor and I'm absolutely entranced. Your writing is so visual and captivating. I'm hooked! For many many years you've been one of my sister's absolute favorite authors and I was wondering if you have any signings or appearances planned, so we might try to make a point to come out and see you some time and nerd out about science fiction? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Welcome to my work! I hope it gives you many years of enjoyment.

I don't do many personal appearances anymore -- travel etc. is the "retired" part of my "semi-retired" state. Once in a while I'll do something around the Twin Cities, but I don't have anything planned at the moment.

Also once in a while -- I resist -- someone will catch me for some online something. Latest was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91no4...

But such things aren't exactly interactive.

Ta, L.

-- Bunches more of the same here: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
We saw one of your prospective scenarios in the backstory for The Curse of Chalion, with Fonsa the Fairly-Wise and the Golden General. But no one knows what extra things may have been going on underneath in these events visible to the god but no one else.

I would think just the known existence of such miracles would have a chilling effect on villainy in general, but alas. People. "No one is a villain in his own eyes" and all that.

Though one could mull on the fact that the gods want people to grow good/great souls, which is not actually the same thing as good/great lives. Death is not necessarily a tragedy in Their views.

Commenters may have some fun with this below...

Ta, L.
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Then you have read Rediscovery by Scott Washburn? Piotr as a young teenager was good.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I try to avoid reading fic of my own works, though people are perfectly welcome to write it. (Though I'm happy to read in other fandoms.)

Ta, L.
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Bujold-sensei, I want to add my thanks to the pile--thank you so much for sharing your stories. They have given me many hours of quiet enjoyment and great conversation. I've been thinking about the "son/daughter of a great man syndrome" you have mentioned. Miles is constantly chasing his father's achievements--will Sasha and his siblings face the same future? How does M&E's parenting differ from C&A's? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Miles is so different from his dad, and Ekaterin from his mom, it won't be quite the same. Also, here we have the chance for six different reactions to their parenting, so there could be quite a range across the siblings; plus sibling interactions with each other that Miles lacked.

So there will be some great-man effects (or embarrassing-dad, at certain ages -- not an issue shared by Miles vs. Aral.)

They are also growing up in a different world, in the generational not the planetary sense.

And the rest I must leave to the ficcers, but to borrow another term from that community, my head-canon is that Alex goes for architecture, Helen becomes interested in law/a lawyer (and gets the duties of count's voice dumped upon her by big bro so he may continue to pursue his own passion, to both their satisfactions) Taurie goes for the military, Lizzie for science, and Selig and Simone are the wild cards.

(Also, "Bujold-sensei" tickles me greatly.)

Ta, L.
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Although I highly appreciate some of your Vorkosigan novels, on the whole I tend to prefer the World of the Five Gods—perhaps partly because it’s so European (apart from its theology, which I actually prefer to Christianity). Out of curiosity, I just checked, and in this world you never use the expression “freshen up”, which seems to appear without fail in the works of most American authors. Congratulations?
Lois McMaster Bujold
...Is "freshen up" not a term/polite euphemism used in Europe?

Or just medieval Europe.

Technically, none of the 5GU characters are speaking any our-Earth languages, so there ought to be some elbow room in pretend-translation by the Author. But I do try to comb out metaphors, anachronisms, and terms based on technologies that don't exist there. (I really miss being able to use "download" and "upload" when discussing demons and souls.) This gets fuzzy when one gets to words like "sanguine" or "melancholic", or "born under a bad star" based off medical and other theories that never existed in the 5GU, but deeply embedded in standard English. (The 5GU also happily free of bleeding and cupping as medical practices, and have discovered hand-washing centuries early, from dreams from their Mother goddess demanding they Wash Up First.)

Though I'm sure they have their own astrology and alchemy at this point, accurate observation with gonzo theories developed to account for them.

(And word echoes. I spend so much time in revisions playing whack-a-mole with word echoes.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
It was mostly inspired by Des. And the reflection that with that expert guidance on board, he ought to be really good at it!

(Crossdressing a a trope predates manga by a few centuries, or possibly millenia.)

I got into manga via anime, which I first encountered at SF cons back in the 80s. Explored more when a few cassettes filtered into video rental stores in the 90s, then came Netflix discs by mail and access suddenly bloomed. I began tracking manga when anime series were truncated, to see how the stories came out.

Ta, L
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Have I already thanked you? Thanks for the rec of Island of Siliang. Pure fun, lovely to look at. Researching Siliang led me to The Untamed. Watching it, I kept thinking of you. It's a complexly plotted fantasy, features two compelling male leads, has scary themes with heroes who are truly good, and is romantically absolutely swoony. If you internet search "Vox review The Untamed" you might enjoy the review.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Island of Siliang is very fine, but The Untamed is what put me at the top of the slippery slope of modern Asian media, about 3 years ago, and shoved.

I stealth-reviewed it on GR through the translation of the parent novel a while back...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I can't really rec the books -- I suspect translation issues -- but they were a useful supplement to the TV show.

Ta, L.
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In your review of Heaven's Official Blessing Vol 1, you had wondered which word was translated as "Jeeze!". The word was likely もう mou, which literally means an acknowledgment of a change of state, with a connotation of surprise. The translator of Ascendance of a Bookworm, Quof, defended "Geez" on J-Novel Club Forums. My questions are: Have you interacted with any translators of your work? If so, what was it like?
Lois McMaster Bujold
With respect specifically to "Jeeze!", one has to know it was a politer contraction of "Jesus", like darn to damn, from a time when such expressions were considered blasphemous. (We have moved on to different forbidden/violated vocabularies now.) Very anachronistic in fantasy ancient China. One might have gotten away with "Buddha!", I suppose... It's possible the young translator had never heard the word used as anything but a noise of surprise, and did not know its history. But yes, you confirm my suspicion that the original word in Chinese had none of the above historical baggage.

I have interacted with a few of my translators, mostly since email; it was not feasible before. Though my Japanese translator did get to visit me briefly back in my early days in Marion, OH, when she was in the States to visit her brother at Cornell. I remember specifically trying to explain the idiom "he pursed his lips" by fetching out a little string bag I happened to have, and demonstrating its closure. But again, one has to know that's what archaic purses looked like.

It's generally an exercise in mutual frustration, especially when only the one side speaks both languages. There is apparently no word in French that conveys exactly what the term "wooden" does for a person's expression, ferex. A few times, I was able to catch errors of understanding, but the ratio of work to result on both sides was uneconomically high.

So, a very interesting exercise, but one I should likely stay out of, unless asked some very specific question by a translator. And even then, I can only expand on what I meant in English, and can never know what the term chosen in the target language may be doing viz connotation, etc.

Ta, L.
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Hello. I'm a huge fan from France, both for your SciFi and fantasy works, and I wondered if there is a particular reason for your "Penric & Desdemona" series to not being translated yet in french ? I asked your publisher here several times and never been answered. Even if I could, of course, read these stories in english, it makes me sad and a bit angered that your french readers can't access them. Many thanks.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'd be delighted to sell the Penric series to a French publisher, now collected into 4 tidy book-sized volumes for just this purpose:

Penric's Progress
Penric's Travels
Penric's Labors
Penric's Intrigues

Operators are standing by... (At my agent's French agent, Agence Litteraire Lenclud, which French publishers presumably know how to find.)

But this decision is up to the publishers, who have to choose books that they think will sell well, so they don't sink their business. I have absolutely no guess how my works fall in that decision matrix, except that if Sauron had the Ring we would know it I lack evidence that I'm a top seller in France. Persistent, consistent, maybe, but not breakout. C'est la vie.

Yes, that's a negative feedback loop. Welcome to publishing. (But not e-publishing, which is why I'm now a hybrid indie-traditional writer.)

Ta, L.
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I'm reading the latest Penric & Desdemona novella & loving it? More importantly, I've posted a recommendation on my long-established author's website. Then I reposted it on my Facebook & Twitter/X websites. https://LaerCarroll.com.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you so much! Word of mouth (now turbo-boosted by the internet) has always been the lifeblood of my career.

Ta, L.
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Do you favor any particular tech for writing stories or keeping notes? There are so many different types of paper-like writing tablets, writing apps, and so forth available these days. I wondered what you as an author use for getting ideas written down, organized, and eventually sent out. Any recommendations of what to use or perhaps avoid? Has tech changed your process over the years?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since I wrote the first drafts of my first 10 published novels in pencil in a 3-ring binder, I am unimpressed by all the futzing over writing paraphernalia. The penciled drafts were subsequently transcribed for submission drafts onto a succession of other tools over time -- typewriter, Coleco Adam, KayPro II, whatever came after that in the way of desktops, couple of Dell laptops, and now, my nice compact Lenovo Thinkpad. I gradually graduated to writing first drafts from the penciled notes/outlines directly on my computer when I first got my own writing space, a little computer stand in my bedroom. Around 1993.

Environment's improved, step by step and move by move over the years, but I still do my prelim notes in pencil in a binder. College-ruled punched paper bought, usually, in the grocery store.

So no, tech has not changed my process much, although I make happy and heavy use of the built-in spelling check and thesaurus Word comes with. My first drafts go down faster -- though in the same chunks, scene or part-scene spurts -- but I do (and need) a lot more micro-editing, so no time is saved overall. I almost never make printouts anymore. I'm very happy not to have to mail manuscripts. After the notes (still in pencil in a 3-ring binder) it's pixels all the way to publication now.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, I love your books but for some reason haven't gotten around to reading your Penric series yet. Since I can only listen to audiobooks at the moment due to health reasons, I would be interested to know if you plan to release the four omnibus books (Penric's Progress/Travels/Labors/Intrigues) as audiobooks?
Lois McMaster Bujold
All the Pen & Des stories are available from Blackstone Audiobooks and its vendors under their individual titles. (Well, the newest one, "Demon Daughter" will be coming later this year.)

As an example, Apple Books has this lineup:

https://books.apple.com/us/author/loi...

Also to be found on Amazon, Kobo, Nook, Google Play, and possibly other vendors. And don't forget Downpour.com -- Blackstone's own audio download distribution outlet.

For anyone wondering where to start, the internal chronology of the series goes:

“Penric’s Demon”
“Penric and the Shaman”
“Penric’s Fox”
“Masquerade in Lodi”
“Penric’s Mission”
“Mira’s Last Dance”
“The Prisoner of Limnos”
“The Orphans of Raspay”
“The Physicians of Vilnoc”
The Assassins of Thasalon
“Knot of Shadows”
“Demon Daughter”

Hope this helps --

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois, this is Albert from Minneapolis, we have met at CONvergence many years ago. I would like to know if you have been approached either via agent or directly on adapting your Barrayar stories to screen. Miles and his family are very interesting characters and that universe has many intriguing facets so I was wondering if you have any thoughts on it on TV or big screen?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No offers since the mid-90s, which are, good grief, almost 30 years ago now.

My ideal would of course be a miniseries that hews closely to the books.

That said, I think Falling Free could be a good stand-alone animated feature film -- it could all be squeezed into 90 minutes without losing much. The Spirit Ring likewise, same reason, but those are not the books most folks are thinking about.

But the sad truth is, once a production company licensed any work of mine, it would be run through multiple committees of endless compromises on its route to release, and what came out the other end probably wouldn't have much resemblance to my books. There are also the Problems of Miles, not only his physical appearance but the fact (shared with my other point of view characters) that much is what of most interest to readers including the humor is actually happening inside his head, in his thought-stream, and making that visual would be very hard.

All that said, it could be a great (if expensive) advertisement for my books...

Ta, L.
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Just a comment about the difference of reading a physical book vs an ebook. I purchased "The Curse of Chalion" back in 2001 and held onto it for over 12 years before I got my first Kindle. The book shows all the wear and literally over a hundred times that I've gone through it - but the e-readers can't show any of that. Isn't there something very different from handling a physical book and flipping through pages?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The biggest difference for me is exactly that -- big -- the ability in ebooks to enlarge the type so my aging eyes can comfortably read it. I've given away scads of old paperbacks and some hardcovers that have print now too small for me.

I do agree about the tactile memory pleasure of a beloved much-read paper book.

My late brother said he'd read Chalion over 40 times. Whatever literary nourishment it was giving him must have been very great, or very needed. I never did tease out from him exactly what.

Ta, L.
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LOL, thanks. Not really rhetorical. Real science - not too many aliens, time travel, far off worlds and stuff in real science. I've read tons of yours, and Fantasy too. Currently working my way through some mysteries that were recommended to me. Old and tired might be nearer the mark, I was thinking of those writers more. That's the problem with getting old, so does everyone else.?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This seems to be a comment that was not put in the comment section of whatever Q&A it was responding to, so I have no idea what it's about.

Do be careful, folks, not to get the boxes for comments on old questions and those for new questions mixed up. Responses will get separated from their antecedents and become incomprehensible.

Sorry, L.
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Is there a way to search through questions? I can't find it, yet it's probable my question today has already been asked and answered. What is the necklace you're wearing in your profile pic? I've only just noticed that it's the same you were wearing at the 2012 National Book Festival.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yeah, the lack of a search function (and/or my failure to provide tags) is an ongoing problem. In part because some questions do come up repeatedly, and it would be handy to link old answers.

With regards to the necklace, it was the solution my Minneapolis art jeweler friend Elise Matthesen came up with when I brought her my box of assorted award nominee pins I'd accumulated, and wanted them all put together in a way I wouldn't lose. (Again. One Nebula nomination pin was lost when I left a jacket it was pinned to in a restaurant, never recovered, although SFWA kindly provided me with a replacement.) And also that I could conveniently display in such venues where it means something to folks, conventions and booksignings and PR photos and so on. Because pinning them all to a shirt had become impractical. (Mike Resnick, for a while, had a sort of cloth bandolier he could keep all his pins on, which lent him a bandit-like look, and might have given me the idea.) Elise calls it, justly, "wearable art".

I thought there was a little illustrated essay on it somewhere, but a cursory look does not turn up a link. In any case, I am indeed wearing it in the recent PR shot that goes with this blog, where I'm standing in front of the poster with all of Ron Miller's Vorkosigan ebook covers. (Of which people can buy copies, by the way. See https://society6.com/product/the-vork... )

Ta, L.
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In “The Hallowed Hunt”, Learned Hallana was annoyed by a rude man, and turned him into a pig temporarily (the spell wore off). It occurs to me suddenly that (a) her ability to do this is rather surprising, and (b) it’s not an ability displayed by any other sorcerers of this world, as far as I remember. Was it a bit of fun that we shouldn’t take seriously; or can any sorcerer do this kind of thing?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Early essay, but not incompatible, I think. This sort of hallucination or compulsion spell is normally the province of shamanic magic in this world, as later developed. We do see sorcerer Pen do it much later on (in both book and world time) at a price: the horses he sent on their ways in "Mission", the courier he hypnotized at the end of "Limnos". What price Hallana pays or how she learned it, or if she's special (well, we know that) and it's one of her several god-gifts, not worked out because I didn't need to at that point, plus it wasn't in her viewpoint.

Although I also trust it was a bit of fun.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I decided against, or rather, Simon and Alys did. It's a different political statement if he is offered and politely refuses. And both Alys and Simon not-so-secretly enjoy the transgressiveness of a love affair across caste lines. Cordelia agrees it sets a good example for the younger (and older) generation.

Ta, L.
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Is there any chance of Penric & Desdemona being published in paperback or hardback compilations? I hate ebooks
Lois McMaster Bujold
They already have been. Look for the Baen Books titles Penric's Progress, Penric's Travels, and Penric's Labors.

They've been out for a while, so don't expect to still just find them on store shelves. You'll have to order them, either through your favorite physical bookstore, or online.

(Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis still carries them, and does mail order.)

Ta, L.
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Any anticipated date for Demon Daughter in hardcopy? I don't see anything listed on Subterranean Press. Also, similar question on audio version. Thrilled that you are continuing to expand this wonderful series.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I only just signed the contracts for these a few days ago, so it will be a while. I'm guessing 4 - 6 months for the audio and maybe a year for SubPress. It was a surprise entry for both in their publishing queues -- mine as well. Blackstone needs time to record, though if they reuse Ron Miller's cover art that will save a step, and SubPress must contract cover art and also send me 1200 tip sheets/signature pages to sign, which they can't print up till they have the cover art. And so on.

I will make blog post announcements when things go live.

Ta, L.
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Plans for WorldCon this year? I just signed up as a voting member (and virtual attendee) today (2/3/24), just a bit late to nominate. (I also read about the 2023 controversy. Sigh.) (Been reading too much murderbot.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
When I semi-retired a few years back, the retirement part was mostly from business travel and public speaking, neither of which are comfortable for me anymore. (Although public speaking has managed to follow me home through Zoom, etc., oops. Still not comfortable, but at least no airports.) The writing part, happily, is on the semi side of that hyphen, slowed but not impeded.

So, no Glasgow for me this year, although I have fond memories of the last Worldcon there in the 90s -- Mirror Dance won a Hugo, for a memento still on my shelves.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for Demon Daughter. I had wondered how you would tell if a new demon (infested?) a young child. I forgot about the fires. LOL. My question is: Do you think Penric is known/remembered as a person in Cazaril's time? Or is he just an author on useful books in the chapter libraries?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Your first question is similar to how one would tell if a new demon infested a cat... :-) You need someone with second/god-sight to diagnose it: saint, petty saint, sorcerer or shaman. And older demon with human personalities and speech would make it more obvious by their ascended behavior, although a very clever demon might even keep that concealed for a while.

I have no idea yet what Pen's relation to Caz's time till be. His books will certainly linger in Temple libraries in all realms where they've had translations, which so far does not include the Ibran peninsula.

A much older Penric interests me, although I don't want to jump prematurely over all the cool story possibilities that lie nearer term.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold All the classic monsters are potential models for malices; they are very protean. Malices do have an underlying program or set of compulsions that, though infected and inflected by what they eat, make them not creatures of free will; obligate carnivores, or rather life-vores, with no limiters, sort of like a cross between cancer and unregulated capitalism.

I don't know what FF#1 may be, but I recently watched the excellent anime Frieren: Beyond Journey's End -- the exceedingly creepy demons in that show have the same sort of Turing-machine style I imagined for my malices. They cannot be reasoned with (though they are smart enough to simulate it with clever lying); only destroyed.

Ta, L.
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Is there any hope that the Vorkosigan books will be printed again? I would love nice copies of my favorites but all I can find are used copies in poor condition.
Lois McMaster Bujold
NESFA Press has the first 8 or so VK books in nice smallish hardcovers, still in print. You can get them (signed) from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore, and some through Dreamhaven Books & Comics. You may also be able to order directly from NESFA. (Which is the New England Science Fiction Association, in full.)

Uncle Hugo's also carries new copies of a lot of my older titles -- you should check their catalog. http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/ah-bujo... You can email the store to inquire about any you don't see there.

There has never been a uniform VK set apart from my indie e-volumes. (Which you can see on that poster to my left in my Goodreads PR photo.)

Amazon, I note, generally has its descriptions of used books for sale stating their condition; "Like new" is probably a useful descriptor though one is of course dependent on the reliability of the sub-vendor providing same.

In general, reprints of backlist books only happen if there is either a big new frontlist book offered expected to sell really well, to carry them in its wake, or a big media adaptation. The currents odds against both are in the "hit by a meteorite" range.

Ta, L.
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I've seen that you plot by thinking "what's the worst thing that can happen to THIS guy," but I wanted to ask if you could dive into how this blossoms into a full novel?
Lois McMaster Bujold "How do I write my books?" is a short question with an answer much too long for this tiny typing box. I have answered a bunch of questions on my writing process earlier in this column, but, alas, no search function. You might try scrolling back a ways.

But this oft-quoted dictum is actually about justly matching plot to character, not about random character-torture as is often misconstrued. "What's the most interesting thing that could happen to this character next (or, for the more active sorts, "that this character could do next") that I haven't already done?" is closer to my real start-point/s.

I have a bunch of stuff on my process already written out at length in The Vorkosigan Companion (at Kindle https://www.amazon.com/Vorkosigan-Com... and other e-vendors.) This was pulled together in the mid-00s, so the parts where I talk about making printouts on paper of my drafts for editing are now obsolete -- it's pixels all the way since the mid-teens -- but the creative/organizing parts are still much the same.

(Also check your local library -- I see mine still has a copy available.)

I was glancing over the volume for the first time in a while, to be sure it contained what you'd asked for on writing process, and was most struck by what's happened to the ebooks market since the huge game-changing impact of Kindle -- at that time I was still on the early ebooks vendor Fictionwise, later bought up and absorbed by Nook.

Ta, L.

(I should probably make a blog post on the Companion. I bet a lot of newer readers don't know it exists.)
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For people starting to follow your work in the 80s, would they have been able to read Aftermaths in the Far Frontiers publication before Shards of Honor was officially published? I'm about to dive into your work and am entertaining the idea of starting with Aftermaths, but only if the above is true.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Start with Shards of Honor. The short story "Aftermaths" is appended at the back in its proper chronological place, as a sort of codicil chapter.

It was written after Shards -- Jim Baen pubbed it in advance in what he called his "paperback magazine" Far Frontiers to try to give brand-new writer me a bit of an introduction to readers a month before the novel was due to be first published, for PR.

Are your reading the series for the first time, and are you aiming to follow publication or internal-chronological order?

Internal-chronological order (as well as pub order) is presently listed here:

https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Th...

Hope you enjoy!

Ta, L.
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Does it annoy you when people tell you their dreams? Last night I dreamed that an insane seafarer showed up, trying to deliver to Penric a boatful of holy animals. Penric was really not sure what to do with them, but the man turned out to be neither exactly insane nor demon-possessed, but instead some kind of botched and inside-out saint. (No idea.) Pen was trying to think what would happen if he brought him to Iroki.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ha! I'm more often told daydreams than night dreams.

Though you must have really assimilated the stories, to have them turn up in your unconscious like that. My dreams, alas, are never so useful.

Ta, L.
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Does "Knife Children" put a wrap on the Sharing Knife series? I hope not. I was sad when the Vorkosigan series ended, but as much as I enjoyed it, it is the Sharing Knife series I turn to when the days get short and a cozy chair (with a blanket) is most appealing. Then I need my comfort books. I pull volume 1 off the shelf and read again how Fawn sparks new life in world-weary Dag. Such a great story.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for the kind words!

I have no idea if something more for The Sharing Knife will emerge in future. I have nothing for it at the moment. But then at the beginning of last October (2023), I'd have sworn I had nothing for Pen & Des, yet at the end of October I suddenly did, so who knows.

Ta, L.
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I'm doing a relisten to the V series and the Audible cover for Barrayar is hands grasping a sword stick. Is this new? It doesn't look familiar.
Lois McMaster Bujold
This was originally the cover to the second Baen paperback edition of the book, way back when. Cover art by Gary Ruddell.

Ta, L.
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Any chance of some more Vorkosigan novels or anything on Barrayar?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nothing is happening in that direction at this time.

I've mostly been engaged with exploring Penric's possibilities, although with 12 stories it's also getting harder to come up with something new for him that's different from all the others. Otta and Atto were a delightful surprise to us both.

Ta, L.
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Just wondering if anyone has ever retrieved the jewel stash that her mother told Nykis about in Prisoner of Limnos? Just wondering.
Lois McMaster Bujold
That is a loose end not yet addressed. It may be something as boring as Adelis-Tanar-Bosha sent to rent/buy the old house and retrieve it, after they were established in power in Thasalon. (Nothing so challenging as what the Arquas had to deal with!) Or it might turn up as a side-moment in some future tale.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, Some of your books are not easy to find and others appear out of publication. Also, living in Portugal, even if I buy them on British Amazon or American Amazon, I might have to pay high shipping fees depending if they go through customs. Is there any plan for re-editions of all your books to mass-market paperbacks or hardcovers?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My ebooks have zero shipping costs, and one platform or another ought to be available in Portugal. Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, and Kobo plus some Google Play Bookstore books should all be pretty international, and have most/all of my backlist available in e-editions. Kindle, I know, offers free downloads of the Kindle reading app, which you should be able to pull in on whatever device you used for this Q. I suspect the other vendors are equally buyer-friendly.

There are no plans for any re-issues of paper editions at this time. Any such would require either a new frontlist novel and the promise of more, or a big media adaptation, neither of which are in the offing just now. The latter may change, the former probably will not. (Reissues as hardcovers are wildly rare -- the writer would have to be Tolkien-level. And mass market paperback sales generally have taken a beating from ebooks, and are struggling at the moment.)

Meanwhile, most of my paper books are still available used, or new through various bookstores (Uncle Hugo's in Minneapolis for a case in point) or online vendors, but then you are back to the shipping-costs issue.

Good luck, L.
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I don't see an actual story here, but I wonder how Bosha is doing as a co-parent in the house of two very busy, strong willed adults, a role he must never have envisioned. Also because someone I know is living with her daughter, son-in-law, and three boys under the age of 8. She is starting to chafe under the apparent assumption that, since she is retired, she will always be available for child care. (?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Sounds like a job for fanficwoman...

Though at Adelis-Tanar-Bosha's economic level, there would be plenty of servants around; Bosha also has a job, possibly a new one or two, so I don't think the parallel with your acquaintance would hold.

Ta, L.
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Loois, do you keep track of loose ends you have left behind from each story as you go? (in a list or spreadsheet or some-such)., so that you can glance over the list at some point and say to yourself, "Oh yes, that fits in well with what I'm wondering about now". Or possibly simply have a sense for unfinished business with certain people or situations that may necessitate re-reading before writing further?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I certainly don't have anything as formal as a spreadsheet (nor would I know how to make one.) I do keep notes, in pencil in a 3-ring binder, where I also do my preliminary outlining as I'm working through story scenes. Mostly my idea-jottings don't go anywhere, even after a couple of pages of further development, but sometimes they do.

If I'm revisiting a character or place in a proposed story, I do reread as needed to refresh my memory.

Ta, L.
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At the end of The Curse Of Chalion, Palli quietly took Cazaril's poem to the Lady Of Spring. As you won't be revisiting Chalion-Ibra, in your mind, what happened to that poem? The way Palli "unobtrusively pocketed" that little slip of paper seemed like foreshadowing of greater things...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep. Palli took it because he was impressed with it, and didn't want Caz to throw it away. Despite his rocky authorial start, I see Caz as a future Quintarian religious poet (in his rare spare time) of lasting merit, in the mode of William Blake but more lyrical. Words that make the hairs stand up on readers' necks, that mean more than they mean, as he tries to fumblingly explain. The Daughter of Spring is a patroness of poetry, after all; he seeks to make flowers to lay on Her altar. And to recapture, as if in a dream, some ghost of that overwhelming moment of union.

He never credits his own poetic power, because it falls so far short of his direct experience of Her.

Ta, L.
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I know people ask you about the books and characters. But I wish in inquire about your health.? You do not have to answer. But i hope you are extra healthy. I worry when my favorite Authors are getting a bit older. I wish you all would live forever.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do glance into the mirror occasionally and think, "Eh, not bad for 74." Low bar, perhaps. I have no dramatic health issues at the moment, just a concatenation of minor aggravations of aging. (List available on request, but, really.) Pretty sure I wouldn't like to live forever, but I have no expectation of checking out in the immediate future.

Thank you for your concern!

Ta, L.
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Can we expect a Subterranean Press edition of Demon Daughter?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes. The signed contract just went back.

I don't know exactly when, though. Besides finding it a slot in their list, we still need cover art and, after that, tip-sheet signing (because the signature pages usually feature some of the art.) So, yes, but it might be as much as a year. Because, print publishing. Should be very nice when it gets here, though!

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Quadrenes absolutely believe the Bastard exists. It's His classification that is up for hot debate. Is He a god, or is He Something Else? To which the answer is "Yes", but some people can't cope with ambiguity. No coloring outside the lines if you're a Quadrene!

(People being people, they believe lots of other things, too, true and false, but that's outside the scope of this tiny typing box.)

(For even more bizarre real-world religious hairsplitting, look up the origin of the phrase "not one iota of difference" sometime... I wouldn't assert that it's the stupidest argument ever to change history, but it's certainly up there.)

Ta, L.
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Do you suppose that there are any atheists in the world of the five gods?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, sure.

An unexplored question, is, how would they be treated? The history of our own world offers many models, all a little... off, from the 5GU.

Ta, L.
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What message or emotion do you hope readers take away from your books after finishing it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't write to deliver a "message". That would be rather thudding. My normal process is to set my characters up with an initial problem, turn them loose, and let them show me their stories. Thus, I get to learn as much along the way as they do.

Judging by reviews and fan mail, what my readers take away from their wildly varied readings (of the same texts mind) is, well, first, totally beyond my control. Though I hope it will include, "Huh, that wasn't bad. I wonder what else she's written?" With perhaps a side order of "Eh, maybe I won't slit my wrists today," but that part is also beyond my control, so.

Ta, L.
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I just listened to Masquerade again and it got me thinking about demons and dolphins. Do you think a more experienced demon might be able to survive in a dolphin (or whale, etc)? Something with a bigger brain.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, clearly one did, for a while. The question is how much of a prior human mind (i.e., experienced demon) would be shaved off to fit if it were that sort of transfer. Again from that example, quite a lot hung on in bits in poor Ree.

The other is how much controlled chaos shedding it would be possible for the demon to teach the dolphin how to do. Both the dolphins who died in Masquerade died of tumors, etc., engendered by such unshed chaos. Their general ability to survive in the sea may also have been compromised. (Though obviously, wheels coming off their carts or things catching fire around them would not have been issues.) Open question! Or at least, open answer.

Ta, L.
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Random questions. I know sorcerers avoid each other but do saints of the Bastard ever get together and talk shop? I’m sure saints of the Mother and the Father must. Which made me wonder, what would the focus of a saint of the Son or the Daughter be?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm sure saints would talk shop, and exchange other mission-critical information, the same as any other professionals. Also to get to complain about their exalted jobs to someone else who understood. Saints are pretty thin on the ground, especially the specialized saints of the Bastard, but local ones would know or know about each other, certainly. (Which leads inevitably to fanficcy musing on what modern communications tools would do to that, heh. Temple websites?)

We did meet one all-but-saint of the Son in the ill-fated shaman Scuolla, for a pointer. Male comradeship, protection, rescue, hunting... there are certainly possibilities.

Saints of the Daughter are an open question. (Well, there was Cazaril, who was certainly one for a time.) Virginity, early childhood education, lyric poetry, temple guards, and spring flowers are rather a grab bag of attributes; there may be more yet to be devised/explored.

Ta, L.
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Vorkosigan Idea - Miles does real legislation in Vorkosigan District as I always felt that this was never addressed given as there district always seems to fall behind as Aral and Miles were always off world or at the Capital worrying about Barrayar. Thoughts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's not legislation the VK district needs, it's economic and technological development (the two go hand in hand), education and medical care (ditto), and terraforming. None of which are as easy to implement as waving a pen. People are working hard on all these, but there's so much to do, and it goes "as slowly as a baby grows". If you look from week to week, you see nothing, year to year, some, decade to decade, lots.

Aral, I keep needing to point out, did not have a free hand in the district till Piotr died when Miles was 17, although Cordelia was able to get in some groundwork on the education and medical sides after the reconciliation when Miles was about 6, as "women's work". With a full school generation built and coming on to do the work, when they did get full control they were able to implement quite a lot -- Aral through appointed deputies, as he was always tied up in the capital, Cordelia directly.

By the time we come to the Sergyar Years, Miles, Ekaterin, and Mark as a team are able to do even more, with the human capital painstakingly built up over the prior decade and a half. One cannot run (or build, for that matter) either a hospital or a fusion power plant without highly and expensively trained people. Returning retirees from the military, who had their tech training beyond the district, would be very important starter-leavening for these projects in all eras.

Another point that escapes many readers is that there must always have been quite a bit of what we would dub local democracy going in all over Barrayar, or the place simply would not function. Village moots (of non-uniform sorts, depending on local history) choose the village Speakers, not the district count, ditto town and township councils, city mayors, and so on. A count is the titular head of the district justice system, but even a little math must reveal that he has a whole web of people under him, of which the books only give tiny glimpses, that decide and filter out almost everything but final appeals. The system runs more heavily to build-ups of precedent, bottom-up, than official codes, top-down, though it has both, again varying by district. Granted, the cumulative effect can get almost as weird as British law.

My further thoughts on all this drift from worldbuilding to the more meta level of novel writing (and selling), so this is probably enough for now.

Ta, L.
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I love all the themes and philosophy of religion in your books. I'm wondering, are you personally religious? Is there a particular religion/denomination that you follow or that inspires your work?
Lois McMaster Bujold I am not personally religious at this time, having no belief in the supernatural. My family background is Protestant Christian. But I have friends from many other faiths. And, of course, I've read about and studied religions through history, everything from Roman and pre-Roman paganism, medieval Catholicism, other world mythologies, Buddhism, and on and on. It's a fascinating subject, both historically and psychologically. Why do people believe what they believe? (And behave as they behave.) And so on.

Religions, it seems to me, have two major aspects: supernatural assertions, and moral or ethical teachings, advice for living rightly. The latter can have a lot to teach separately from the former, and need not depend for their validity on it.

Ta, L.
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All this says to me is need more books! A Piotr history and a current Miles book... actually a half doxen more books, please. (?)
Lois McMaster Bujold

I'm glad you have enjoyed my work!

The form of this question, which is a very popular one, gives me some odd reflections on the nature of novels existing in a sort of timeless now, leading to some readers picturing writers as also existing in a timeless now, when in fact the 30-something writer Bujold is a very different person than the 70-something (semi-retired) writer Bujold, and not only for the 40 more years of physical wear and tear. It also leads to different perceptions of the books between the older readership who has been following along for decades, and a (hoped-for!) new audience who is discovering them for the first time all at once, as if they'd all been written and published last week. Which ebooks do sort of invite.

Reader-response is endlessly fascinating in its complexity...

Ta, L.
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Do you think Penric ever takes his family to see Jurald Court or meet his relatives there? Which makes me amazingly grateful that, in all of human history, I live in a time where I can talk to my sister on the other coast any time I like or visit her in 8-10 hours of flying.
Lois McMaster Bujold

Good question; I'm not sure when or if Pen would ever return to Jurald Court. Travel is difficult in that era, and travel with small kids difficult in any era, so I wouldn't expect travel in the family years. The one reason could have been his mom, but she passed away before Pen ever left Martensbridge. He's not that close to his surviving siblings, or his never-met presumed-by-now nephews or nieces; there might have been cousins or friends, but as time wears on there would be ever fewer of those left alive. He probably still exchanges yearly letters with eldest brother Baron Rolsch, in a stilted Christmas card sort of fashion.

Ta, L.
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Sadly, the most likely thing. But it would be interesting to see people's reactions if Penric was the one who DIDN'T stand out (physically at least). Maybe someone else from the cantons will visit him and verify that his tales of mountains, and snow & ice are true. (?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
This was a comment on a previous question about whether Pen & Co. would ever visit the Cantons again, to which the answer was "probably not."

The Goodreads layout here makes it unfortunately easy to get mixed up between a comment box and a new question box, in which, like this example, the comment gets separated from its antecedent and bobs out to sea. Watch out for this pitfall when commenting, folks!

Ta, L.
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Do we need a nag Lois Bujold campaign? LOL 100,000 readers send letters to her house. Just kidding! But I am still waitng for the Lord Autitor to deal with aliens. Dr. Riva invents technology to link to more distant wormholes.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Alas, no sentient aliens in the Vorkosiverse. (Though we have seen other biota -- apparently, one can't get an oxygen atmosphere without it.) This is a genetic engineering future, like Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality, where 10,000 years down the timeline all the exotic aliens will be descended from us. We are seeing the first stirrings of this future in Miles's time. (I strongly rec the cycle of stories of Cordwainer Smith, some of which have aged surprisingly well from when I first met them in the late 1960s.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
No?

They are characters in books. There's supposed to be more drama than in real life.

:-), L.
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I was reading through the questions you've answered on Goodreads, and I was struck by how much your answers read as if written by Desdemona herself. I mean that in the best possible way, as I find her quite funny. I know all the characters are technically "you", but I was wondering if there may be a little more "you" written into Desdemona than other characters?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mm, perhaps. I wrote in the introduction to the collection Penric's Progress: "In the world of the five gods, magical powers are not inborn but obtained, by—among other methods—acquiring a chaos demon, an invisible bodiless entity stemming ultimately from the fifth god, known as the Bastard in His holy family. This led me to the need to make up the character of the demon, which, in this system, opened up a huge range of possibilities, since demons, all beginning as identical blobs of escaped chaos, learn their diverse personalities from the succession of sorcerers they symbiotically inhabit over, potentially, many lives. This also, to my vast amusement, gave me the chance to combine the fetching young male protagonist beloved by the market with the cranky older woman so familiar from the inside of my own head."

None of my characters are me, but they do borrow from my experiences, as from a lending library. Or as a cup of sugar from the neighbor, or junk from the attic, or a literary garage sale, whatever.

(Beware, by the way, the common misperception that only female characters are imprinted this way from a female writer. Or only male ones from a male, I expect. Creativity routinely escapes such restrictive social roles.)

Ta, L.
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Regarding spirits in the World of the Five Gods: Are spirits more common in areas where the majority of the population follow the Quadrene faith, since they are more likely to reject the Bastard? Or do the other 4 gods "pick up the slack" so to speak?
Lois McMaster Bujold
If by spirits you mean sundered souls, perhaps a little to both. The gods in general prefer to take up all the feasible souls they can, sort of the opposite of the old Calvinist "theory of the Elect", where only a tiny fraction of the absurdly virtuous (by Calvinist standards) go to heaven, all others rejected.

As we have seen, the Quadrene divines find ways to stack the deck against reporting souls gone to the fifth god, er, demon-god, but that's hardly the same thing.

As we've also seen, souls of the dead come with a best-by date, after which their deterioration renders them unable to meaningfully assent. But it does build in a short buyer's-remorse period where one might get over one's first embarrassed rejection of a god or gods. Or not, as may be.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Any plans for Cordelia's girls are pretty speculative, beyond them being six very different persons, growing up in a very science & sea oriented dual household with their half brothers, as Cordelia & Oliver become a Sergyar survey science team of note, with joint careers spanning 6 or so decades. (Think, I dunno, some cross between Mary & Louis B. Leakey and Jacques Cousteau?) It would be amusing if this second half of her life becomes the part most remembered in wider Nexus annals.

I did have a thought the other day re: Selig & Simone, who have always been the blank or wild cards among Miles's kids -- I suspect they may end up on Sergyar, actually. (I wonder if Cordelia will ever succeed in getting the planet renamed? Couple generations on it's probably as moot as the Americas being named for a dead Italian geographer.)

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois. I am just a bit younger than you and have been a reader for over 63 years. When I first read Falling Free, I was so impressed with its originality. A few years later, the Vor Game completely won me over and I have avidly read all your works since. I just want to thank you for sharing this extraordinarily creative story telling ability! I have so enjoyed being a part of that adventure!(?) Paul Innes
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for your longstanding interest in my work!

Ta, L.
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A lifelong fan of sci-fi books, I worked in publishing for 40 years. Yet it was only in 2021 when I stumbled upon THE CURSE OF CHALION with its compelling, complex, and shrewd characters and a world with a sophisticated and believable theological/magical system. Since then I have read almost all your works (a few volumes of Miles still to go). So why are your books not better known? How did this injustice happen?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good question.

I'm better at writing than at marketing...?

Actually, I have pretty much relied from the beginning on word-of-mouth to sell my books. While the internet has speeded up this old slow-and-steady-wins-the-race approach, it's also clogged the system with a lot more competition. I am not a very noisy writer, nor do I wish to become one, so I don't know of any solution I can, or wish to, apply there. Meanwhile, word-of-mouth will have to continue to serve.

Commenters below would be welcome to tell how they first found my books, and what barriers they had to overcome to decide to try them.

Ta, L.
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A lot of quotes from your books come to my mind fairly often (I didn't vote for him), but the one I find most profound is at the end of Brothers. Miles - "Straight-Up good guys and bad guys". Elli - "Great, which are we?". Was this just a fun line or did you see it as much deeper like I do? I watch a lot of violent fiction (bad CIA etc) and find it very discouraging for there to be so many real conflicts now
Lois McMaster Bujold
Beyond being a funny quip for that moment in the story, I suppose this one has its deeper roots in me having been a youth of the Vietnam War era, when America came down off its hero-high lingering from WWII, in a lot of unfun ways.

Ta, L.
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Are there any Black folx in your books? A friend asked me this recently, and I couldn't think of any characters with dark skin, or who one would say is Black.
Lois McMaster Bujold
A lot of the galactics in the Vorkosigan series are mixed races of several varieties, depending on founder effects. Many are undescribed, which I expect doesn't count, but there was Sergeant Chodak of the Dendarii Mercenaries, and that diplomat and wives whom Miles met in London, some quaddies, at least one haut lady of the Star Creche, and a Tau Cetan captain, thought of as as typical for his planet, who were. Also the Jewel sibling, Jet. Some residents of Jackson's Whole run heavily to a dark South Asian look, ferex Shiv Arqua.

Fiametta Beneforte, heroine of The Spirit Ring is most obviously what moderns would call black, or mixed race if you prefer, with a black Ethiopian mother (or grandparents, as she was born in alternate Brindisi, Italy) and an Italian father. Her skin color is described as "walnut".

Technically, the Barrayarans are all pretty much mixed race, but with 600 years for a relatively small founder population to blenderize, any original phenotypic group distinctions don't much survive. But there are reasons so many Barrayarans are described as having a Mediterranean look -- another population that has had generations to mix it up.

For the more advanced galactics who have had centuries to mix 'n match genes ala carte, whose skin colors would be whatever their parents chose for them including red, blue, or green, one would need to think carefully about what one means by assigning 21st C. terms. See: Jet and sibs. And all the many different gene-engineered people. How many arms do you have? How many sexes? Can you breathe underwater? Are you a hauntingly beautiful post-human with an extra set of chromosomes? And so on.

Ta, L.
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You mention Cordwainer Smith as an author among the formative scifi works you were reading in the beginning. Are there any specific works that have most stuck with you? I’m always looking for reading recommendations!
Lois McMaster Bujold



Ooh, many, and if you see any, grab them. Two that stand out are "The Game of Rat and Dragon" and the haunting "A Planet Named Shayol". And, argh, that one with Lord Jestocost and the cat girl, dredging memory... "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell". That one's primo. I've been known to mutter I'd like Miles to be Lord Jestocost when he grows up, if he ever grows up enough (debatable), and Pen, Ginko from the anime "Mushishi", but that's another medium.

Ta, L.
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In The Sharing Knife world do you know in your mind what happened in the past with the old sorcerers and absent gods? Is that something you worked out or is it an event/history that you only thought about superficially to give setting to the Dag and Fawn's world?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It was not worked out in detail, only in broad outline. So no, there is no notebook full of elaborate worldbuilding extant, but there are constraints -- the shape of the box into which anything considered must fit.

(There is no certainty on either the characters' parts or mine if there ever were real gods in this world, though there is certainly real magic power.)

Ta, L.

Ta, L.
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Just finished rereading “Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance” and was wondering about your thoughts on Byerly’s future? It seems like he has the chance to reinvent himself, and from the little that came out about his past and Rish’s assessments if him, it seems like he could benefit from as much therapy as Mark ended up getting.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I doubt Byerly will be getting much therapy on Jackson's Whole, but he is getting a challenging and extremely varied new job, or several, which may be just as good. Any complaints about getting stale (and he was) back in the dodgier parts of the Vorbarr Sultana high-Vor scene will be right out the airlock.

No, I haven't worked out any canonical thoughts in detail, but as Our Man On Jackson's Whole, he ends up doing an excellent, if suitably Byerly-ish, job. He'll likely be stuck out there for a lot longer due to his competence than due to putative exile for that unfortunate little architectural incident back home.

Good question whether he does come back home, or when. Rish won't be leaving the Jewels for a very long time, if ever. And the Barrayar Byerly eventually comes back to will be much changed, granted mostly for the better. He could end up feeling alien on both ends. Which suggests he might need to reinvent himself for a third time, at age 60-something. Well, he has Simon Illyan's example...

(Which leads to the question of what Simon and Alys will be doing, after their year-long galactic-holiday/informal exile creates a sharp break with both their former jobs and scenes. No, I have no clue, but something part time and occasional, absorbing but not demanding, seems suitable to their then-ages. Alys is about 5 years younger than Simon, just fyi. Sergyar has been the all-purpose answer of where to park excessively powerful retirees, but I'm not sure it would suit this pair.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's mostly natural at first, plus demon-supported general good health, till Pen's suicide attempt at the end of his Martensbridge years gave Des a huge scare. After that, and deploying all the medical knowledge accumulated over three physician-sorcerers' practices, it's mostly Des, very intent and getting better at it as she goes.

Yes, this has been in Pen's writer's mind for a while.

:-), L.
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*New Scientist* has just put out its writers' list of favorites science fiction novels, and "The Vorkosigan Saga is on the list. A nice blue ribbon for you? The attention is well-deserved, and may attract some new readers. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2433037-our-writers-pick-their-favourite-science-fiction-books-of-all-time/
Lois McMaster Bujold
Oh cool! Thanks for the heads-up.

Ta, L.
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I really enjoy the Sharing Knife world. I liked the explanation of the age gap you had in the book. Lifespans. The lakewalkers live far longer than the farmers. Dag has family that lived to 120. Fauns 18 and Dags 54 with 60 more years together would reach old age together at 78 and 114. I know you are done with Faun and Dags story. Are you going to write anymore stories in this world?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, there is the novella "Knife Children", Barr and Lily's sequel story, which you may already know about, but apart from that I have nothing at this time.

(If you don't know, it's readily available as a ebook and audiobook at the usual vendors. There is also a print-on-demand edition.)

Yes, the thing about age gaps is that the initial conditions, which are what some people get exercised about, change over time; over enough time, they matter less and less. 10 and 20 is a big age gap; 70 and 80 isn't.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's possible that they did meet, but I haven't made up any details. So readers are free to speculate unconstrained by canon.

Ta, L.
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I note with regret that you say you are semi-retired. I assume that this means that your literary output will be at a slower pace than before. I am greedy for as many Bujold stories as possible. Would you ever consider working with younger co-authors to put out new books? I would expect that you would be reluctant to let Miles, Pen, Ivan, Elli, et al 'leave home', but other authors seem to be doing this.
Lois McMaster Bujold I had several offers earlier in my career for shopping out my work, and in all cases the answer was a hard no. I don't work all that well or happily with others, and the idea of some sort of publisher-arranged literary marriage to do so makes me shudder. My writing is the one thing in my life that has been entirely mine. It took me quite a long time to realize there was a lesson embedded in this.

That leaves aside the fact that riding herd on a collaboration takes just as much time, attention, and work as writing on one's own, if not more. For the same internal costs, I'd rather be writing my own stories. Or, y'know, sitting and looking at a lake.

The cores of all my stories are some sort of inner spiritual journey the characters take, that both they and I discover as I write. This generates all other aspects as I go, in real-time as it were. Not the sort of thing one could put in a setting-and-plot-centered static story-bible.

I've been self-described as semi-retired for about 9 years now, but what I've mostly retired from is PR, public speaking and conventions and their attendant travel, and other pro-paper-publishing contract and deadline stresses. If you don't count Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, which was something of a transitional book, I've written and self e-published 14 novellas and a novel since then (plus a nonfiction work of family history), so I don't think you can count my semi-retirement as my signal going dark just yet. I've just tried to eliminate all the parts except the writing, and readers. (Well, and tax-record keeping, which will extend beyond the grave.)

A work of mine, once started, demands its own completion. Ideas that grip me are slower to come, but I don't need all that many, really.

Ta, L.
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I’m very happy with your work ethic, Lois. We get to experience a Penric story quite often, and very occasionally a Vorkosigan one. And a reread of your previous works is always a joy. Keep on doing what you do. When there’s another collection of Penric tales, I’ll get a signed copy from your local bookshop, as long as you’re still doing that? Regards from Melbourne, Oz, Peter
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you're still enjoying my work!

I'm not sure what will happen with further Penric collections. Sales started out well with the first volume, but the second was released May 2020 when all the bookstores were closing for Covid. The few sales figures I've seen for the 3rd volume did not look good. The mass market paperbacks of the first two are out of print, as is the hardcover of the third. It's kinda hard to build sales when there are no copies to sell. So while it's not ruled out, I'm not at all sure Baen could make a fourth collection work well for them. Eh, time will tell.

Ebooks, happily, avoid all these difficult market constraints.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks, as always, for your interest in my work!

I don't expect to write any more about those characters at this time. Ista, escorted by Illvin, had a lot of demons to eat for a while in the wake of the curse. When that tailed off, I fancy they had surprise menopause twin girls. In honor of their mutual god, they did not marry. I picture them living in a sunny villa by the sea. Caz would be a welcome visitor, but not linger due to the location.

Foix manages to connect with whatever sorcerer training is going down in his region at that time, somewhat behind the rest of the continent due to the religious wars. So he keeps his bear-demon. He's not entirely thrilled with being a learned divine, but what can you do. I picture him retaining his romantic connection with Liss, in some form. If she has kids, that would be the end of her courier career as a rider, though she might go on as a post supervisor. Or better, remain in Ista's household train, where her opportunities would be wider and weirder.

Ta, L.
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Is the Count Selig Vorkosigan from the Time of Isolation who is mentioned a few times in the books also the father of Count Piotr? If not, do you have any ideas about Piotr's father? We know he was married to a Vorrutyer and that Piotr had inherited by age 22. Does that mean the Count Pierre's father died during the First Cetagandan War or before the end of the Time of Isolation?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've never formally apportioned those names. So a Selig (or someone named after the first Selig) is possible for Piotr's father's name. Or it could be something else.

Yes, Piotr's Da did die during the Cetagandan war, just when unspecified, making Piotr the young count and... well, general he earned, or took, on his own. Not later than the bombing of Vorkosigan Vashnoi, a late-war event, though it could have been earlier. If in the bombing, one wonders how any bodies were retrieved for burial -- or perhaps reburial -- at Surleau.

(The Cetagandan occupation started about 15 years after the end of the ToI, therefore ending about 35 years after the end of the ToI.)

Ta, L.
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The phrase "the singing woman at the forest's edge" appears to affect Ingrey too deeply to be a throwaway line, yet there is no more reference to it in The Hallowed Hunt. Is there something that was cut or a story yet to be written? I did a web search thinking it might be a reference to something, but all I found was a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, "The Singing Woman From the Wood's Edge" which does not seem right.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Your web search is exactly right, actually. The line was inspired by the poem.

The intent in the story was to evoke the sense, in the reader, of more magical culture than was actually shown on-page. No, it was not developed more deeply than that in my head.

Great poem, by the way. Recommended.

Ta, L.
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It's here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Penric and the Bandit, just found it for Kindle on Amazon.) (Yes, I realize that multiple exclamation marks are a sign of a diseased mind, according to Pratchett. But I toned this message down; originally it was all caps. Can I have some credit for that?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
You're welcome!

I will set up a spoiler discussion space post on my blog as usual, in a while.

Ta, L.

1July2024.
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Lois, have you ever written down, or thought about writing down, any of the missives that Cordelia sent to Jole when Aral had his heart attack? At the very least, it's a story with a happy ending.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have not. You might check amongst the fanficcers.

Ta, L.
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A few years ago I read a book about bioscientist Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues who discovered a powerful way to modify genes (Code Breaker, by Walter Isaacson). It reads like a detective mystery & is as compelling. It shows how scientists cooperate to expand knowledge, and compete for credit for their successes in doing so. Have you read the book? Have any thoughts on it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, though I've read a handful of others on the topic. Always fascinating. With pop sci, I've come to realize, any book more than 10 years old will be out of date; with bio sci, make that ten months.

Ta, L.
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This came up, again, on another list where I do not go, but for the record, the question was on the interpretation of the French pun at the end of Shards of Honor about Surleau - Sousleau and Aral's sailing... ?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The prime minister is joking about Aral's frequently tipping (and righting, I must add) his sailboat, primarily due to Aral's habit of pushing the envelope to get just that bit more of speed out of it. Sur l'eau, in its not-Barrayaran-corrupted French, meaning "on the water", and "sous l'eau" meaning "under the water. It is NOT a pun on "souse", nor a reference to his also-at-this-time habit of inebriation. However much the latter might be a contributing factor to the former not stated; although if he's feeling well enough to take the boat out it's probably not a bad day.

Ta, L.
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Hello! Thank you for the Vorkosigan books; I just finished Captain Vorpatril's alliance and I love what good, kind people the characters are and how much they're able to help each other; it's an optimistic lens for the real world. I appreciated your thoughts in this interview: https://nautil.us/does-science-fiction-shape-the-future-543468/ did any of the other authors' answers surprise you or make you think?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Since I'd met several of my colleagues along the way at cons and such, I didn't find the range of answers surprising, no. I was a little startled at how much Cory Doctorow and I were on the same page about not trusting SF writers, or writing, with real-world decisions. In almost the same words, though mine were do-not-quote.

Ta, L.
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Do you love all your stories intensely once you finish them? What happens if you get to the end of one and you just like it, or think it's merely adequate? Withhold it? Publish anyway? Did that ever even happen? Was the public reception different than you expected?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have a hot-cold, not quite love-hate, relationship with all my stories in the course of writing them, depending mainly on whether things are going smoothly or I'm stuck, sometimes for weeks. Now that I'm semi-retired and writing without contracts and deadlines, the latter is much less stressful.

If I like it enough to finish, I like it enough to publish.

Public reception is always wildly varied -- you can check out my one- and five-star reviews for the same stories right here on Goodreads. So there really isn't any "not expected". I just hope my tales will find their audiences, and sell well-enough, as they have so far.

Ta, L.
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Do you incorporate current social or political issues into your stories?
Lois McMaster Bujold
What an odd question. I don't think you can have read my stories yet.

The short answer is No. More specifically, I do not write stories to explore issues, especially contemporary aka ephemeral ones. I write to explore characters. Various readers, at various times, have read their social or political concerns into the tales, variously; but this is more a measure of the reader than the story. (Studying reader responses to the same story over, say, four 10-year intervals will illustrate this nicely. For especial interest, reduce the variable array by one more and look at the same reader's readings over 4 decades.)

Ta, L.

(Stories are Rorschach blots, I swear.)
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What are the different symbols/sigils of the gods in the World of Five Gods? I know a symbol of the bastard is the two hands with thumbs point up and down. Apologies if this has already been answered. I looked but didn't find it among the questions. Ever since first reading 'The Curse of Chalion' I have wondered what was the sigil of the Lady of Spring on the riders that passed Cazaril.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've never worked out those details. The sigil of the Lady of Spring is doubtless something floral. Note that different countries and regions can have different ones, if sharing the general theme, not to mention natural variations in a world where everything is hand-made and nothing is mass produced.

Ta, L.
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A lot of your work would make for fantastic television. Has anyone ever approached you with an offer?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not that I know of. There have been discussions that went nowhere.

It all goes through my media rights agent, who doesn't trouble me with mere inquiries, at my request. If it ever goes to a serious offer from some company actually capable of producing a show, I'll hear about it.

Some few are interested. Vanishingly few are both interested and capable, as nearly as I can tell.

Ta, L.
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I absolutely adore your Penric and Desdemona novellas and novel. I read the e-books as soon as they are released and I have been collecting the print collections from Baen, even the Subterranean Press editions. Are there plans to release another print collection of the more recent novellas and The Assassins of Thasalon through Baen? (The affordability of the Subterranean Press editions is becoming a concern for me.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yeah, the SubPress editions are designed to be collectable, not affordable. They used to have a 2-tier system, with a lower-ish priced hardcover and the signed leatherbounds at two different prices. Both still only the one printing, though, as limited is their shtick. But they had to re-tool to survive Covid, alas, so now just the one signed edition. (Which is plenty from my point of view, as I have to sign the 1300 tip sheets.)

I figured our e-editions for (very!) affordable, and Blackstone's audio downloads are also very reasonable.

Not sure what's going on with Baen these days. The first Penric collection, Penric's Progress, came out in January 2020 and did well, but the second, Penric's Travels came out in May 2020 when all the bookstores were closing for Covid, and so suffered in sales. It's hard to tell how the somewhat more recent 3rd, Penric's Labors has done, as paper royalties run so very late.

If bookstores are still "ordering to the net", I don't see how the series could recover. Ordering to the net is an old bookstore practice where stores and chains would figure an estimate of sales for book #1, order that number plus a slight overage; for book#2, they'd order as many as sold the first round, which would always be less, and so on down the line until book#whatever was extinguished altogether. It takes a series much luck to overcome this natural damping-out. (Or so Jim Baen once explained to me, assuming it wasn't a "but so it's not our fault" spiel, which publishers are prone to when trying to calm writers.)

Amazon lists the hardcover of PP still available, mass market paperback out of print, Travels ditto; Labors is the reverse, hardcover is out of print/sold out, mass market still available. I'm not quite sure how to read the entrails of this, other than Labors probably had a smaller initial hc print run, see above. And Baen hasn't chosen to reprint the mmpbs of the first two. Which suggests they calculate it wouldn't be profitable. One can't ask one's publisher to lose money on one's book, after all.

(Frustrating for readers who want a uniform collection for their shelves, though.)

For foreign rights submissions we did devise a 4th collection, which we called Penric's Intrigues and contained the novel The Assassins of Thasalon and the novella "Knot of Shadows", which made up about the same word count as the prior volumes. I'd need one more novella to make up a 5th volume at this point (2024). No promises...

Ta, L.
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Have you given any consideration to write another Vorkosigan tale? Another e-book novella perhaps? I am so thirsting for more of the Vorkosigan saga. (I am soaking up very release of the Penric and Desdemona e-books, by the way.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Never say never, but certainly Not At This Time.

Glad you're enjoying Pen & Des!

Ta, L.
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Apologies if someone has already asked these: Have you read Everina Maxwell's books? They reminded me of your work, and I later found she lists you as a major influence. Also, were you involved with hiring Grover Gardner as a narrator of the VK books, and/or did you have any interactions with him as he worked on them? Miles has his voice when I read the saga. Thanks for writing your books!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't believe I've read Maxwell's work yet, no.

Blackstone, not me, hires their narrators; Grover came in on the tide from my point of view, although my literary agent knew and loved his work and was very pleased when he was assigned to my books.

We had a couple of direct contacts on pronunciation, a few times.

I did have input on picking the narrator for "Knife Children", because I wanted a male voice for Barr that was distinct from the female who'd done the tetralogy. Of the 3 or 4 audio samples Blackstone sent me, he seemed the one who best understood the dry humor of the tale.

Ta, L.
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Just visited my son who lives in Mears Park, St. Paul. It's a one-block park, surrounded by tall modern buildings, with an artificial stream running through it and brick pathways among the plantings. It felt so familiar I started looking around for the two-century old mansion in four stories and two wings protected by a force field. Any connection?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've never been to Mears Park, despite proximity, so, no direct inspiration there. But as Cordelia remarks somewhere, nothing makes a city so civil as an injection of country, so good for St. Paul.

Ta, L.
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I'll be in Minneapolis over the weekend. Is there a bookstore near downtown where I can find signed copies of your work?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore, and Dreamhaven Books & Comics.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...

http://dreamhavenbooks.com/

Hugo's may possibly be closer and have more titles, but you can check websites or call in advance if you are after something specifically. Hugo's also does mysteries, Dreamhaven also does comics. Both are worth visits.

Ta, L.
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So Lois, my so distant Georgette Heyer muse, on your advice I have read the Toll-Gate, The Unknown Ajax, and finally The Reluctant Widow. Surprisingly, as a 61 year old Aussie guy, I've thoroughly enjoyed her works. What next? Is it too early for Cotillion, or do i not know enough of the various tropes she suberts in that book?!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying your exploration!

You could probably go ahead with Cotillion. Note it does not have an action or mystery plot, being mostly a frothy romp. (Not that it doesn't have plots, plotting, and plotters, but they revolve around the romance/s.)

Ta, L.

Ta, L.
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I've just been re-reading the Cordelia-centric books and realized that Kamala Harris walks exactly the way I've always pictured Cordelia's stride - except pants instead of skirts. Hoping you find this to be the compliment that I mean it to be? I know it's not likely but I sure wish we could see more of her. Thanks for all your writing!!
Lois McMaster Bujold
A nice compliment, thanks!

Ta, L.
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I can't believe I'm asking this, but do you accept review/blurb requests from authors (who aren't with major publishing houses)?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, sorry. I've found it easier to refuse all blurb requests than to try to figure out how to triage them.

For your consolation, major or minor makes no difference. Speaking only for myself as a book consumer, I've never bought a book due to a blurb in my life, so I'm dubious of the utility of the custom. (Online reviews, mm, now and then, though.)

Good luck --

Ta, L.
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Rereading Hallowed Hunt and I wondered something. Leuko says he was a sorcerer and deliberately “laid down” the gift of a demon because of a miracle. In your opinion, was he able to pass on his demon to someone else or did it go back to the Bastard?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It's been over 20 years since I wrote that throw-away line, and I have no memory of what was in my head at the time. As it does seem to have been done with the direct hand of the white god, it's possible the miracle could have gone either way, the demon passed along to another sorcerer or directly reabsorbed into the god. My feel of L.'s regret in that passage implies that reabsorbed was meant at the time; that Leuko had somehow ruined his demon-gift. But if a reader wants to picture something else, it seems text does not forbid.

Ta, L.
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I've just reread the Sharing Knife series for the millionth time. I so love those characters. Have you considered writing more about them? I would love more time with Fawn, Dag, Arcady, Sumac and all the others. I feel lonely for them.
Lois McMaster Bujold
So glad the story still holds up for you!

I will guess you already know about the sequel novella "Knife Children" -- if not, it is readily available at all our ebook and audio vendors. I have not, at this time, thought of doing more with the tale.

Ta, L.
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I just saw this:AI writing "'partner" Sudowrite have an "Ursula K. Le Guin Bot." Did Le Guin or her estate sell rights to this company?" This company has an AI bot giving "author feedback"! This horrifies me. I wanted to warn you about these shenanigans, so that no one pulls this on you or anyone else.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Warning passed along.

L.
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Any particular writing exercises you swear, or swore, by?
Lois McMaster Bujold Nope. I just sat down and started trying to write pay copy, i.e. my own stories. Took a while to get it any good, of course.

I have a weird stubborn aversion to writing things I don't choose for myself. Early attempts were very uncomfortable. I started avoiding such tasks as soon as I could.

Ta, L.
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Pls I just wrote my first book Can you advise me on ways to get readers for my book?
Lois McMaster Bujold
My own early breaking-in experience is too far out of date for today's newbie book market; too much has changed.

The one thing that has not changed is that one must write a book appealing enough for readers to recommend to each other; and then, write some more just as good. Single books tend to sink, but a grouping can make a cross-supporting raft to hold each other up. This doesn't have to be a series; author's name is usually enough of a link. But you can't afford to chuck out hasty duds just to have another title out, as they will provide drag not lift on the whole. "Each one better than all the others" is the unattainable ideal. (Why, yes, this market demand does make writers crazy, why do you ask...?)

Any commenters who have had more recent experience launching books are invited to chime in below. What worked/didn't work for you all?

Ta, L.
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I was looking at the cover of "The Physicians of Vilnoc" and realized it is difficult to have two hands in the position shown. The best I could find is two people standing side by side facing opposite directions (you could also have someone standing besides someone hung by their heels). Was this a deliberate choice?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You'd need to ask the artist, Ron Miller, but there's no reason it couldn't be two people's hands.

Ta, L.
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I thought I remembered reading that Demon Daughter was coming out in January in hardcover, but now see it will be out in Spring. Have I got this right?
Lois McMaster Bujold
SubPress's publishing schedule is often subject to slippage, being a small company. January was an early guesstimate, evidently now obsoleted. I see their website says "Spring", so Spring it is.

https://subterraneanpress.com/bujold-dd/

Ta, L.
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I’ve reread the Vorkosigan Saga many times, and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance has recently become my favorite. I enjoy how Jackson’s Whole evolves across the books—from the cold Houses in Labyrinth, to the more familiar Cordonah. What is the relationship between House Cordonah and House Fell now that both are closer to Barrayar? Also, where did the idea for the game Rish and Tej play come from? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you've enjoyed the series!

The relation between Cordonah and Fell, when last seen, is much as ever, uneasy neighbors with occasional alliances (or rivalries) of some current interest.

Rish and Tej's game of Great Houses is, of course, inspired by Monopoly, a board game of my childhood in the 50s I used to play with my older brothers. Updated, because this is SF of a sort.

Ta, L.
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Des is keeping Penric young(ish) but I'm assuming that while she might be able to slow his aging and keep him healthy, she would not be able to extend him past the assumed human maximum of 125. In the end it still feels like it would be hard on him to outlive everyone important in his life except Des. How do you imagine she will handle his feelings of loss and possible depression? And how will she handle losing him?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Fortunately, I don't have to imagine it yet...

I do not posit Des will be able to create physical immortality; Pen will continue to age, but very slowly. How long, well, it's magic. I can decide as I wish. And yes, the "outliving" problem will be real. Puts me in mind of Illyan and his memory chip, how what seems an enviable miracle when young can become an unbearable burden with time.

Harder for me is to come up with new, magical or magic-adjacent adventures for Pen that are different from, at present, 13 others. That's more likely to, though not kill him, bring him to an end. Though Conan Doyle managed 54 stories and 4 novels for his fellow, so, there's precedent.

I'm in no rush to get through Pen's life; I've only just got him up to about the age I first envisioned him. I'm pretty sure he'll outlive me -- but so, I hope, will all the rest of my creations.

Ta, L.
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Happy birthday Lois! Are you feeling good today? I hope so.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I had a very nice day, thank you! A quiet morning fielding birthday greetings, a pleasant evening sharing Asian media with my media-watching friend. And pizza, that I didn't have to make.

Ta, L.
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A PG-rated version of Sharing Knife would be readable by any kid who could handle (for example) Wings of Fire. I'm reading large excerpts to my kid already (and Knife Children unedited). She especially likes the malice-kill scenes. Would you consider producing such a thing? I'd buy it, and I suspect I'm far from the only parent who would.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can't imagine bowdlerizing my own work. I'm also not sure what it is you'd want left out -- sexual situations, I assume, but since the tale starts with an unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage, and since Fawn's (and Dag's) recovery and healing with each other very much includes sexual and emotional elements that take place in the few intimate scenes, that would sort of rip the center out of key themes.

You don't say how old your kid is. The books were never written for a grade-school audience -- high school and up, if anyone'd ever asked me. Mastering, or at least getting an initial grip on, adult sexuality is part of the work of adolescence, as is (initial) identity formation, so those parts of Fawn's journey are very pertinent to that age group. (I remember, doesn't anyone else...?)

Anyway, good for you as a parent reading to your kid, and taking your own responsibility for filtering.

Ta, L.
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Will Penric ever go back to his homeland of the mountain cantons to visit, or take Nikys and the girls with him? I wonder what he would feel coming back to the beginning, as changed as he is now!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Good question, to which I have no specific answer. At this point, not only would many people Pen knew have died, other new ones would have been born -- he does have a number of nieces and nephews he's never met. So not only has he changed, which he well knows, but the place would have too, which might take him more by surprise. Exactly how much would depend on when and why this scenario took place.

We know Pen corresponds with distant professional colleagues and friends. At least at first, I expect Pen did keep up some sort of contact with his family, whatever the 5GU equivalent of the family Christmas letter perhaps. Less often as he moved farther away in space and time. He mostly doesn't try to explain his own job to them. If he did go back, he'd likely feel very displaced, and they wouldn't understand him much. Re: his own family, there'd be a language barrier between them and the Canton in-laws and cousins, though Otta might retain a smattering of Wealdean.

Ta, L.
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I recently finished listening to all 19 episodes of, "My Word as Vorkosigan," on the podcast Plot Trysts. I greatly enjoyed them. A big thank you to hosts Alex and Meg! And a wonderful idea that they included other published authors as guests to discuss your work. But my favorite episode was when they interviewed you. Have You listened to any/all of the podcast episodes? And if so, what did you take away from it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I listened to them all, and enjoyed them very much!

Take aways, hm. Certainly I was impressed again with what a wide geographic and generational range of readers find and enjoy my books, over what seems a heartening stretch of time. (So maybe I won't disappear after my decade, whichever decade one supposes it to be.) Also, what I have also learned from years of reading reviews, that any reader's reaction to a work will tell you more about them than it does about the work. Very transactional, that.

(Also, that unicorns are not the only vain beasts that may be ensnared with mirrors. Writers, too...)

Don't overlook the appended Discord chat group, for folks who want to continue the discussions. I believe the directions for accessing it may be found on the Plot Trysts site. (Or readers who have succeeded could chime in with directions in the comments here.)

Ta, L.
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I know you've probably gotten this question before a million times, but would you ever consider writing another mainline book in the World of Five Gods series? I am devouring the Penric books at the moment, but I'd love another novel-length, meaty story :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
I have, at the moment, no ideas in that direction. If something seized me, there is no impediment, but my semi-retired energy level is more suited to novellas at present.

Back when I was living from contract to contract (which is like paycheck to paycheck, but with a longer timeline) I didn't have time or energy to divert for the lower-paying short work. So getting to explore the length has been something of a treat for me.

(At least there is one novel-length Penric -- The Assassins of Thasalon, if you've made it that far in the series -- but that was an accident. It did start out to be a novella...)

Ta, L.
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Planning on a re-read, I realized I apparently don't have an Ebook version of GJatRQ. I tried to find it in apple books but they only have the audio version, and it isn't listed at all in their list of Vorkosigan works. I'd prefer to read over listen currently. Any ideas why I can't find an Ebook for this novel? Could it be some sort of temporary glitch? I hope so!
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is a temporary glitch. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, and Cryoburn have all run to the ends of their terms of license, so I took back the e-rights. The old Baen editions are being replaced with my Spectrum indie reissues (can't call them reprints in pixels, I guess) same as the international/UK versions we've had up for a while.

I'm not sure how long the process will take -- I should likely check our other vendors to see what's been completed.

Ta, L.
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I love love love your Vorkosigan series- every single one! I’ve re-read every one multiple times. Will you be releasing a new one by any chance? I’d love to see Miles in another adventure now that the stakes are higher with his kids. Or perhaps the Cetagandans try to make trouble again? Honestly, anything you come up with is amazing. Thank you!!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying this series! No, I don't have anything new in that direction in mind at this time.

Ta, Lois.
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With the year 2030 not so far away, with the 100th anniversary issue of Astounding/Analog in January, I wonder if you would enjoy having a story in that issue, should a suitable plot occur to you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't even know if I'll be alive in 2030 (though I would hope to be) so I'll be making no promises. Doubly so as my stories seem to come along to their own internal rhythms, not to outside stimulus. Even I don't know what I'm going to be writing next.

But cool about the magazine's anniversary! I didn't realize that it was extant this long.

Ta, L.
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My Dad and I started reading your books in the late 1980s. His favorite character was Ivan Vorpatril. My Dad would have love Captain Vorpatril's Alliance. Have you considered writing a book where Ivan is the ambassador to Jackson Hole? Thank you for all your books over the years. I actually read Cryoburn to my Dad at his hospital bedside. I still cry when I read the dribbles at the end. Good memories.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I'm glad my books have served you and your Dad!

I do see Ivan's future career as an ambassador, following his 20-year hitch. I would expect several postings over the years, as he trains up, of increasing importance. Jackson's Whole, maybe not; there is no government to have an embassy to. Jackson's Whole needs an active and alert ImpSec department, which it has got, lately augmented by Byerly.

I'd imagine JW has an array of small Barrayaran consulates, one at each major jump-point station, that serve both commercial needs and intelligence ones. Since Barrayar is generally more interested in monitoring traffic through the Whole's local space than downside. ImpSec work downside is ad hoc, as need arises.

Ta, L.
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Hi Ms. McMaster Bujold, I wanted to write you a quick note here on Goodreads and tell you how much I have loved your books over the last two years. I read the Five Gods books first and just read both Shards of Honour and Barryar. Your books are so enthralling and I love them! Merry Christmas!?! Hannah, a reader from Omaha, NE
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you! And, even better, you have a lot more stories to go. Welcome!

(Note for general reference, my surname is Bujold, not McMaster Bujold. McMaster is my maiden name which I use as a middle name. This only matters because when searching by author my books are/should be filed under "B" not "M", and I wouldn't want readers to not be able to find them.)

Ta, L.
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In a discussion with friends about Diplomatic Immunity, I mentioned having seen you say that you regretted not having made the plot resolution section with Ekaterin be present tense, from her POV, rather than described after the fact. Someone asked where I had seen that - and I can't find it! I had thought it was in an afterward, but I'm not seeing it. Do you remember where that might be? Thank you!
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't know where you might have run across this, but what I was actually thinking was that I somewhat regretted not making the tale dual viewpoint between Ekaterin and Miles. In the early sections, there wasn't much for her to do, so it would have seemed unbalanced. By the end, I realized the viewpoints could have been balanced not side by side, but end for end, a different structure, but at that point the book was running late, and what was going to be Paladin of Souls was late to start -- long story, but it was how I learned I couldn't contract and write two books at once, at least not to two different publishers. (I had actually started with trying to alternate chapters between the two projects, got a couple chapters in, and stalled out painfully on both.) I lost about 9 months to that mental logjam, plus some concurrent health issues. I only got unjammed by setting Ista aside.

Present tense, no, that was never contemplated. If I had done Ekaterin's viewpoint, it would have been tight third person past tense, just like Miles's.

Also, on a different level, I think Ekaterin and Ista were competing for creative energy viz women's thematic issues in some weird way. But even if I'd thought of this at the time and not after the fact, I would not have had the will to rip apart a perfectly good book that was finished for a bunch of changes that would make no difference to the outcome.

Ta, L.
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Sending you and all readers of your works my best Winterfair greetings. And in the world of the Five Gods, this should be the day of a Father's Day celebration. Do the two celebrations have much in common?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for the kind sentiments!

All the solstice celebrations in our world's countries and histories make up a hugely varied range of activities. Father's Day, winter solstice, in the world of the five gods should likewise have a lot of regional and local variation. Because of the god's association with justice, maturity and aging, and death, I'd expect it is more solemn than one would guess extrapolating from, say, the Roman Saturnalia, but then there is that more fundamental association with male fertility to leaven things. So the celebrations might be a trifle schizoid, maybe Father's Day and Father's Night (or perhaps Father's Day Eve) with the latter more ribald. Being the commencement of the season, it would run more to honoring new and young fathers; grandfathers would go to the last days of the season, just before the Daughter's Day of spring equinox.

Ta, L.
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This isn't a comment about a particular book, but I see you participate here. I thought, what better place to give a compliment? I was severely ill last year. So sick I couldn't understand anything new or even pick up my favorite comfort read books. OK, audio books. I spent many hours listening to your books I've read so many times. Thank you, because it was an awful year and your stories helped get me through it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad to hear my work could be of help!

...Analgesic fiction is underrated, I feel.

Ta, Lois.
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I'm a librarian at the Worcester PL (MA) and the leader of our SF Book Club. A few years ago we read A Civil Campaign and in March 2025 we'll be reading Komarr. Many SF authors have joined our meetings, including Allen Steele, Robert J. Sawyer, Walter Hunt, Adam Hamdy, Elizabeth Moon, etc. Would you like to join our online mtg in March, meet some fans, and talk about your book? Love to have you join us!
Lois McMaster Bujold
For all such private inquiries that require a private answer, please contact me through the Goodreads messaging system, to be found under the little envelope icon at the top right of one's screen.

I believe one must have "friended" someone to use it, which is easy with me because I automatically friend anyone who asks, who appears to be a normal reader. Anyone who has had more experience using this not-intuitively-obvious system, please chime in below with further instructions.

I sympathize with the frustration at trying to use Goodreads to contact someone, but the "Ask the Author" column can only show public replies.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois. Just finished rereading Paladin of Souls (as an older women, I love Ista). I know you've answered this before, but I couldn't find it. Do the Chalion books come before or after the Penric books, chronologically in their world? Since you're concentrating on Penric and Des (which I love), I doubt you'll ever visit Ista's traveling court, will you?
Lois McMaster Bujold If the 5-gods world were our own (which it's not) The Hallowed Hunt would be about 1200, Penric around 1350, and the Curse of Chalion around 1475.

No plans for more Ista at this time, no.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois! First of all, thank you for your books. I have enjoyed them a lot. Now, my real question/thoughts. The Miles universe is pretty big. The lore is astonishing (and I LOVE a good lore)... But I think it is pretty much there, waiting for a good story to be written. For example, something about Piotr on the First Cetagandan War. Also, how would you feel about opening Miles universe to another author?
Lois McMaster Bujold I have no plans at this time for more in the VK-verse.

I am not in favor of opening the series to another author (and Baen did ask, back in the day.) The universe may feel sharable to you (and to many fanficcers, bless 'em) but not to me; I build it backwards, starting with the characters and their story and building the world around them as they progress through it, a looping process with lots of flux. By which time there's not much left for anyone else to do.

(The advantage of free-range fanfic is that I don't have to ride herd on it, and they can have all the choices, not just my by-definition-canonical one, without impinging on my own work, time, or attention.)

Ta, L.
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I just reread The Curse of Chalion (for the 4th time!). I noticed that in Curse, the temples are said to be four-lobed, with the Bastard's altar housed in a separate tower, whereas in the Pen & Des books, the temples are five sided. Is this a difference because of the different time periods of these books? Or is it an Ibran-only fashion? Possibly because of the Roknari (Quadrene) influence on the Ibran peninsula?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Though the 5 gods (or 4 gods and a demon-god) are real and universal, the religion is not a universal church, like medieval Catholicism (wanted to be); no pope-equivalent. Each country or realm or region has its own temple administration, practices, and history. And local temple architecture.

For the Ibran peninsula specifically, the 4-lobed-or-walled temple plus tower is an historical artifact of the religious-flavored wars washing repeatedly back and forth over the landscape. It's easier and cheaper to deconsecrate and reconsecrate a freestanding tower than to repeatedly tear down and rebuild a whole building every time the rulers change over.

5-sided buildings are also an artifact of building smaller structures in lighter timber. Heavier, larger stone and concrete needs the balance of matching sides to share the higher loads, or so my dim understanding of such building processes go. (Which gives me another chance to plug the excellent Great Course taught by Stephen Ressler, Understanding Greek and Roman Technology, to be found on the Great Courses Plus streaming site and elsewhere -- I believe Amazon Prime carries some of their titles.)

Ta, L.
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Who was the Auditor in the frame story of Borders of Infinity? Who initiated the audit? I mean, the blurb says Miles unravels a plot on his back, but if ImpSec can't publicly account for enough money to bankroll a merc fleet, that really would raise some legit questions
Lois McMaster Bujold
Text says, somewhere, that the front man for the investigation is Count Henri Vorvolk. I (and Illyan) think he was probably manipulated by some unnamed persons out to get Aral, as usual, through Miles. Possibly opposition in the Council of Counts, but it might more likely have been some men in the Council of Ministers for a change, who also have occasion to clash with Prime Minister Aral, and less access to Miles's backstory than Henri, but with access to Imperial budgets. The financial questions are in fact reasonable, if one cannot be apprised of how unreasonable Miles's deeply classified missions can get.

Ta, L.
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A few questions: 1) did I mention how much I love the books? Because I love your books, the characterization, exploration of themes, your writing style. 2) how big is House Cordonah? I imagine an orbiting space station with ~40k people, including children. What's the corporate structure look like; do the denizens have voting shares? 3) are wormholes affected by gravity? What do they orbit?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you are enjoying the books!

Your metal picture of House Cordonah's main upside space facility seems within spec. It may not, per se, be orbiting the planet, but is instead at/near/guarding one of the 5 wormholes, and handling direct wormhole-to-wormhole traffic. In which case there would certainly have to be a sister station in orbit for transfers of goods and people downside. Note that's not the totality of their holdings; they include downside support bases and properties as well. I doubt anyone but the most upper management has any say in how the House is run. Certainly not the denizens/peons/grubbers. ("Voting shares" are a Komarran custom.)

I have not so far had to work out the exact mechanics of my wormholes, so I haven't. (I trust you realize they are fundamentally bogus physics?) But if they don't move with the gravitational systems they are near, it would have jump-point to jump-point travel-duration effects over time. At the speeds my ships move, such shifting may be just folded in for day-to-day needs, but for century to century matters, it could add up to a problem. The navigational math is in any case non-trivial, hence Cordelia's former Survey specialty.

Ta, L.
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Ah finally, able to converse. I hope there isn't a letter cap...spoilers there is >:) I don't know this website very well is there a better way to message you directly? If not long story cut VERY SHORT...I finished reading Cordelia's Honor at 6amCST this morning before going to bed. I laughed, I cried, I contemplated my own mortality and called family, and I am very grateful the rest of your books are in the back.
Lois McMaster Bujold
For more personal messages, there is an in-house email function to be found under the little envelope icon at the top right of your screen. How to make it work is non-obvious -- I only manage to answer mail, not initiate it. Anyone who can give a quick tutorial is invited to chime in down in the comments.

This is fine for now, however. Glad you enjoyed my work, so many years on!

The next logical Vorkosigan book for you would be to continue in chronological order with The Warrior's Apprentice. Unless you want to take a break on the fantasy side with any of the other 2.5 series, Chalion, Sharing Knife, or Penric. But one nice thing about books is that they will wait for you.

I think it may be time to repost the reading order guide, updated with the new Penric stories, and some second thoughts of mine on the Borders of Infinity 3-novella collection...

Ta, L.
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Hi,is there any plan to reprint the entire vorkosigan saga,can't find any trade paperbacks in print?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No such plans at this time.

There weren't very many trade paperbacks done in the first place. My print backlist is presently a pretty random grab-bag of varied editions and formats -- hardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperback -- done over decades by Baen and NESFA Press. A few titles are still to be found new, most must be grubbed up from the used book market. Without a new full-length novel to front it, reprinting the backlist would lose money for any print publisher attempting it.

I have considered the option of doing indie print-on-demand editions, like our somewhat experimental editions of "Knife Children" and The Spirit Ring, but sales of those have not yet repaid the efforts to produce them. Spectrum's experienced and dedicated (in both senses) e-book wrangler left last year, so it would be a big struggle up a learning curve to replace her. And there's no way to get such indie editions into bricks-'n-mortar bookstores. And so it sits at the moment.

Meanwhile, my e-editions continue to sell and sell, and Blackstone does a good job marketing their audiobook editions, so I don't feel "out of print" from this end.

Ta, L.
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Thank you for answering all these questions! I especially appreciate that, as a reader, I can't tell that you "build [the story] backwards, starting with the characters and their story and building the world around them". Question time! Re-read Mirror Dance; what theory of mind did you draw from to describe Mark?
Lois McMaster Bujold

Glad you're enjoying my work!

I was aware of the mid-20th-C. pop-sci theories of multiple personality disorder viz. The Seven Faces of Eve, and that the earlier versions were largely debunked, but the symptoms had been shifted to what is presently typed "dissociative disorders". A friend (and test reader) of mine had a version of this, a type of protective deep dissociation/code-switching-of-presentation under stress; some long conversations with her were enlightening in a more global fashion. She described it as feeling from the inside not so much as a split or separation, but a retreat of some aspects of herself down long dim corridors while other parts took front and center.

With that frame, and being more than a touch dissociative myself (it's a pretty writerly thing), the rest of Mark came from a deep dive into my own head. So Mark was more generated than constructed, less theory than data, which may account for his character-density.

However Mark appeared, he was apparently artistically convincing enough that a large block quote from Mirror Dance was used illustratively by a psychological scholar in an article on the subject in Chapter 53 of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (2013, Oxford University Press) "Personal Identity and Identity Disorders" by Stephen R. L. Clark.

The author footnotes it thus: "...[Mark's] broken personalities allow him to cope; at once distinct centres of consciousness and servants of the whole. Whether there really are such experiences remain uncertain; at least the story, and its more immediate and maybe-factual cognates provide metaphors for living."

How this got past peer review, I do not know... But certainly one of my more flattering pieces of reader-response.

Ta, L.
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Knowing that you’ve done both traditional publishing and quasi-self-publishing, what has your experience of (and motivation for) each of those been like? As I work on my first novel, I sometimes worry about giving up a given setting as a playground if I go trad pub; I don’t want to lose the ability to freely write and share other things in that setting or premise. Is that a valid concern?
Lois McMaster Bujold

Well, you're getting a bit cart-before-horse, here; first, finish your novel. Plenty of time during revision-fretting to worry about marketing. (Or, better, to start your next work. Because if you submit to a trad publisher you are going to have a lot of time waiting, months to years, unless turn-around times have improved since last I heard.)

Traditional publishing contracts will vary from publisher to publisher and writer to writer, not to mention agent to agent if you secure one.

Your concern about being free to write other/related things will depend on your contract. It is usual for the publisher who has licensed your work to have an option for a first look at whatever you write next, with some set time for acceptance/refusal, sometimes with some specificity -- "next novel-length work", "next [name genre] novel, "next [work in this series]", if it is one. This can also vary by "next completed work", "next partial", "next proposal" with the sunk time-cost risk for the writer going down in steps. Some publishers will secure their interest by offering a multi-book contract. Whether one finds this a delight or a daunting will depend on one's own writerly psyche. And also how far along you are in that next thingie.

Keep in mind, if they look at and want your next thing, related or not, you are free to say "no thank you", though unless things have gone badly you won't want to. Or them to offer, for that matter. Also, book publishers are normally only interested in books; shorter work is commonly considered the writer's own to do whatever with. If you have a novel under contract, and put a related short work out in some other venue, most publishers would regard it as free advertising.

Licensing a next related novel to some other publisher, when Publisher #1 has put time and money into the first, would be a no-no, unless/until the option work has been submitted and rejected. Then it's free to market again, or whatever. But that's what the option clauses cover.
When money changes hands you have stepped out of fanfic world into profic business world, with all the business etiquette that this entails.

Something Not To Do is sell your actual copyright, or license for "term of copyright" which comes to the same thing. There are rare occasions where the latter may be justified, but for most novels, not.

A lot more writing and sound business advice may be found on Patricia C. Wrede's blog "Wrede on Writing"; check the tag at the bottom "the biz".

https://pcwrede.com/blog/

When I started in the 80s, what is now called traditional publishing was the only publishing there was, no modifiers. So a description of that would cover the bulk of my writing career, which I've discussed at length elsewhere. When indie epub became an option, I got into it gradually with e-reprints of older out-of-print works. The first Penric original indie novella was an experiment, jumping off from what I'd learned from the reprints. But certainly part of my motivation, as I hit retirement age, was to pare back on the stresses of publicity and promotion on the writer of traditional publishing. I suspect retirement is not a present concern of yours, so I don't know as my experiences there are apropos.

Ta, L.
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I'm a sci-fi romance author with my debut coming out in July. I've seen your name come up often as a founding author in sci-fi romance. I'm curious if you agree with that characterization? Did you deliberately lean on classic romance tropes in Captain Vorpatril's Alliance like marriage of convenience and oblivious to love or was that more of a happy accident?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I've been reading romance off and on since my twenties, so in over a half-century it's impossible that I not have sopped up pretty much all of the tropes, not to mention all the romantic subplots in other fiction.

Boy Meets Girl (or vice versa) is one of the biologically fundamental central story patterns, along with Coming of Age and Justice (or Revenge) Attained. Another good one is Rescue. And, for a more mature audience, Redemption. I've played with all of these basic patterns in all of my fiction, weaving them in and out as needed by the characters in question.

I suppose my primary romance influences are Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Sayers. Falling a bit later, well after my career was launched, (then) contemporaries Jennifer Cruise, with maybe a side jaunt into the occasional Jayne Ann Krentz in her assorted pseudonyms. Austen was a late acquisition, though I had hit Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre back in, hm, college? Around then. Well, and all that Shakespeare -- besides live plays and films, I was in an excellent play-reading group for several years in the 90s, among other experiences. My later romance reading has been more diffuse and occasional -- the last few years I have tried to at least briefly note much of my reading here in my Goodreads "My Books" section, for the curious.

But I consider myself a science fiction author, no modifiers. Or speculative fiction author, to avoid the awkwardness of shoving in "...and fantasy!" as though it were some sort of afterthought, which it's not.

Whether to class something as a romance or as some other genre with a romance subplot depends on where the spine of the story lies. Where does it begin, where does it end, what is the point of the story and at what point is the story told? If the structure starts with two potential partners meeting, continues through the stress-testing of their relationship, and ends when the relationship is successfully confirmed, it's a romance spine, regardless of what other business makes up the musculature. So ferex Shards of Honor qualifies, The Warrior's Apprentice does not. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance qualifies, The Vor Game does not. The duology Komarr and A Civil Campaign is a portmanteau of a dramatic romance and a full-on romantic comedy. Paladin of Souls is a redemption story with a lesser romance subplot. Mirror Dance is a redemption story flat-out. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen... is in a class by itself, as a study of grief and recovery is wound around an exploration of future reproductive technologies and the curve balls they could throw.

My SFnal not-quite-joking definition of romance is, "a story about the promulgation of human evolution through sexual selection", making all of romance, seen with that squint, a subset of science fiction. (Yes, yes, I know perfectly well that not all romances need or even can end in reproduction. Hijacking the tools that evolution bequeathed us for purposes of our own devising is the grandest of human traditions, after all.)

Ta, L.

(More discussion here, for the curious... http://dendarii.com/accc.html )
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Hi, Lois. I am a decades-long fan. Thanks for your books! I’ve always enjoyed the Heyer-Sayers callbacks in your books and am delighted to find out you are also a Jennifer Crusie fan. Bujold, Heyer, Sayers, and Crusie are my favorite re-reads. Some of your writing reminds me of Elizabeth Goudge. Did you read her, especially the lovely children’s book The Valley of Song? There is a lot there that feels Penric-ish.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you've enjoyed!

Nope, I'd never heard of Goudge. I'll have to look her up.

Ta, L.
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This is a thank you for the epilogue in volume four of the Sharing Knife series, Horizon. I’d read them before, but just blew through them again this weekend with such enjoyment. Given our current political climate, malices, ground work, and beguilement have a very different meaning this read around. Did you have any political/authoritarian fears as you wrote these books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you're still enjoying these works, 20 years (goodness!) on from their creation.

Tolkien has a remark, in his Foreward to The Fellowship of the Ring, that has always stuck with me. To quote the paragraph in full:

"Other arrangements could be devised according to the tastes or views of those who like allegory or topical reference. But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and have always done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

In The Sharing Knife I was, as usual, exploring what I construe to be the universals of human nature; if folks find applicability in them in later times, well, maybe I got something right. (Possibly even history.)

That said, I did have unregulated capitalism of the toxic extractive kind in mind when I created the malices and their blight. (Well-regulated capitalism, run by relatively ethical persons and made subordinate to the needs of the whole fabric of society, being another matter, no more intrinsically toxic than any other human association for the purposes of accomplishing tasks larger than individuals can manage.) But the way the mindless malices make destruction automated is certainly a modern construal, and commentary.

Ta, L.
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Hi Lois...I just finished "Dangerous Liaisons" (the book, although seeing the movie inspired the reading), and I was wondering if it had any influence on your backstory for Aral's first wife and her affairs in the capital amongst "not altogether vicious" older people. Or were these ideas in the air, or in your romance reading of the time?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No, I've neither read the book nor seen the film. There have, I see, been several media adaptations; I don't know what year the one you saw originated, but I might note I wrote Shards of Honor in 1983. (Mis-attributing influence to works that actually came later than whatever one is discussing is a pretty common error, but one that is happily easier to check nowadays.)

A quick check on Wikipedia finds the original French novel was published in 1782, so its ideas and tropes have likely been floating around descendant genres ever since then, possibly where I absorbed them. Though I will note that two-and-a-half centuries is plenty of time for other trope-sources to be created and disseminated.

Ta, L.
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Hi, I was just wondering if you've heard of or read Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell? I really enjoyed it, primarily because it felt a lot like Vorkosigan saga. Not in a derivative sense, but more in the sense of general feeling I got from it. I later learnt that Ms Maxwell is a fan of your work (and of Georgette Heyer's work, too), so I just felt like I had to put it on your radar. Cheers!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yep, I've not only heard of her, I've heard her -- she was one of the guest hosts discussing Komarr on the recent Plot Trysts "My Word as Vorkosigan" podcast series, linked in my blog. Or you can just google Plot Trysts My Word as Vorkosigan to find it. I've not got round to reading her work yet, though.

Ta, L.
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I'm finishing my second read of the Vorkosigan Saga and loving A Civil Campaign—it’s been a while since a book made me laugh this much! Quick question: Did the comconsoles emerge because mobile smartphones didn't yet exist, or was it intentional to keep the internet "as a place" (like desktop computers)? Thank you :)
Lois McMaster Bujold
The fictional tech of the Vorkosiverse began with my first Vorkosigan novel in 1983, when only landlines existed and the internet was not thought of outside of DARPA of which few had heard. (Though I put a modern-style fully commercial internet on Beta Colony the following year, 1984, when I wrote The Warrior's Apprentice.) Dial-up modems were beginning in the mid-80s, upon which iirc one set one's telephone receiver to connect -- my Dad had an early one, slow, noisy, and kludgy. So for the following decades comconsoles were just series consistency. I have allowed my wristcoms to quietly update, however, from Dick Tracy's "two-way wrist radios" to in effect smartphones with 3-D projections.

(Now let's see how many people under 50 know who Dick Tracy was...)

Ta, L.
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Hello! I am doing my first read through of the Vokosigan Saga, and in The Vor Game, there is the Laskowski base. In High School, I had a math teacher/mentor/friend, George Laskowski, who also wrote a sci-fi zone, Lan's Lantern. Is this base named for him? If so, that's quite an honor (and a well deserved one, in my opinion. He was a great person), from such a distinguished author as yourself!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, Lazkowski Base was indeed named for George, to his amusement. Good to know he's remembered fondly. He was an active fan around central Ohio back when I lived there. The Lan's Lantern zine used to review some of my early books, to my benefit, and interviewed me iirc at least once.

Ta, L.
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In WotFG, we know that the gods are real and fulfil essential functions. I was wondering if this necessitates that truly all societies in this world follow the same essential faith? Did the Old Weald still believe in the five gods even though they were fighting against Darthacan Quintarianism? And if so, what does this imply for Roknari society? It would be like a modern nation disavowing a fifth of physics!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yes, the 5 gods are real and thus everywhere the same. It does not follow that all human societies understand or worship them in the same ways. For a better analogy you may want to think of the variant theology/theologies more as like science in the era of phlogiston or the epicycles of the planets or the four humours: plausible, accounts for the observed facts, widely accepted, and wrong.

The Old Weald did believe in the 5 gods; they were fighting more for their culture and, hm, less national than tribal identities. And territory, of course. Romans versus Teutons are one example, but even closer are Carolingians versus the still-pagan tribes to their east (itself a descendant of the prior conflict.)

Although the Great Four have set gender identities (not sexes; sexes are a classification of material bodies, which the gods do not have), I might note that the fifth god does not, being variously worshiped as male, female, both, or neither. I can't quite call the Quadrene beliefs a temporary aberration of theology with their classification of the Bastard as a demon-god with the emphasis on the demon part, as that's not wrong; it's more a sort of theological nationalism gone rigid and sour. Possibly started with two theogogue brother divines having an ego-driven fistfight about it, and spread from there, the way these things do. (The split between Roman Catholicism and Greek Orthodox worship circa ~1000 CE being an instructive historical model; the catch-phrase "it doesn't matter one iota" comes from that. The real fight was much less about the minutia of theology, and much more about Who Is Going To Be In Charge Here, a clash of some towering egos of the day.)

Ta, L.
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Does Otta ever come to be comfortable in the presence of Cat? Or perhaps even enjoy Cat?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes. but it takes rather a long while.

:-), L.
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I just finished Penric and the Bandit, and loved Penric's role as a divine in Roz's journey. I also found it interesting that compared to early days Penric seems less sorrowful about the damage he has to do to others. One question I had was the reminder of the number of Orban sorcerers, incl. Alixtra Dubro and Ota. Is there a supervisor of sorcerors in Dogrita? How does Pen relate to him/her?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The supervisor of sorcerers in Vilnoc is of course Penric himself, in an ad hoc fashion. What's going on in Dogrita is presently undefined and unexplored. We've met one high-ranking sorceress/physician from there, Learned Master Ravena, but whether there's anyone over her other than than the archdivine him/her self, or how many other sorcerers there may be in and around the winter capital is also not yet explored. We know there's enough for Pen to travel there to teach his experimental medical techniques to, but that could be as few as two, or as many as several.

Ta, L.
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First off, thanks for the work. Your books are old friends. I just started rereading "Penric's Demon", and he's just getting to know Desdemona a bit, thinking about what was happening to him, and it came to me that one day I would very much like to read the story of Penric's first imprinting on the next generation. Posting that is the second most fannish thing I've ever done. >grin< Forgive me?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for being my good reader!

Re: Pen and the next generation, it depends on whether you mean his influence on his children and students, or what happens when he (eventually) dies, and Des attempts to jump to a new person. I am in absolutely no hurry to address that complex issue!

Children and students are rather more present in Pen's current time frame. Many possibilities there, too good to be jumped over.

Ta, L.
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I’ve read the Vorkosigan books many times and continue to love them! In recent years I’ve moved mainly to reading audiobooks. I would like to listen to this series on repeat cause Miles is just one of my favourites, but the narrator is not. Any thoughts on having the audiobooks redone with a narrator that reflects more of Miles personality?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, none whatsoever. Blackstone has been doing a great job for years at getting all my titles out, both at online vendors and in libraries.

Narrator's voice and style seem to be a very personal taste, like cilantro. I hear from plenty of folks who love Grover Gardner's, a few now and then like you who bounce off.

I'm not a big audio consumer myself; for whatever reason spoken prose does not flow seamlessly into pictures in my head the way written does. It may be a matter of practice, which may shift as my eyes age, but since my ears are aging even faster, who knows.

Ta, L.
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I wish I could read Flowers of Vashnoi in print. I wasn't fast enough to get the limited edition from Subterranean Press. Is there any likelihood of getting this novella in print in some other way, like a compilation with something else? I may have to break down and figure out how to download the ebook, but I don't really like those.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not any time soon, but I have been mulling whether to set it up as some sort of print-on-demand volume, probably combined with "Winterfair Gifts", which has no separate paper volume at all. It would be a fair amount of work, but do-able.

It was pubbed on paper, back when, in the Baen omnibus volume Miles in Love, still available variously used. And also as an ebook, I see.

Ebooks are incredibly easy, once over the first hump. I hang out in the Amazon ecosystem myself, but other vendors have similar offerings. Just download the free Kindle app, which may be found somewhere on their home page or near it, to whatever device you read on -- laptop, tablet, phone, or desktop -- and you should be ready to purchase. (Well, there's a credit card registration in there somewhere, natch.)

I read almost nothing but ebooks these days, due to eyesight issues. Instant large print!

Ta, L.
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I have a friend who loves the Vorkosigan Saga, and persuaded me to start it, and I've also fallen in love with it. She's got a birthday in September, and I would love to get her a personalized signed copy of a her favorite book in the series. Do you do anything like that? I would be happy to send you the book with postage paid for the return journey. If this is possible, I can be contacted at josh.charles@gmail.com
Lois McMaster Bujold
As a general answer to a specific question, no, I don't attempt to handle books sent by readers through the mail anymore. (So many problems and hassles, including lost-in-the-mail hazards, etc.) However, anyone who wants to purchase a signed, personalized copy of any of my books in print can order them from Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore here in Minneapolis, and they will be shipped from the store.

http://www.unclehugo.com/prod/index.s...

Great folks at Hugo's, an indie bookstore well worth supporting. They'll be glad to help you out.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, Myself and several people I showed it to) said "Parade red-and-blues!" (For people who haven't read those books yet, this is re: Barrayar/Vorkosigan.) They appear to be costumes for the the Visconti film 'Ludwig' set in 1864; I hope you enjoy the picture, plus I include an algorithm question mark? https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/6810/119319383.1c7/0_8e8e3_33f63b4e_XL.jpg
Lois McMaster Bujold
Fun!

For another visual source, the forest green uniforms in Branagh's Hamlet film are both exactly the right color and the right Ruritanian mode for some of the Barrayaran green uniforms, possibly modified by a touch of Soviet drab.

Ta, L,
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Are Kou and Drou’s four daughters the luck of the draw or a deliberate choice? Would knowing how dire the sex ratio had become outweigh the cultural pressure of wanting a son to carry on the family name? Or did they not want to subject a commoner son, no matter how close to the Regent, to having to compete with Vor sons for the available women, given pressure to marry “up”?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The first two Koudelka girls, Delia and Martya, were the luck of the draw, being natural body conceptions/births. The second two, Olivia and Kareen, were replicator births and thus sex-chosen, and also given basic gene-cleaning while they were at it. No nearsightness or diabetes or genetic cancers for them...

What was going through the minds of the Koudelka parents is not specified in text/canon. Possibly they really liked the little girls they'd got and wanted more. The option of marrying "up" was I believe mentioned in text as a hypothesis or discussion, not confirmed. There would certainly have been conversations with Cordelia exploring the ramifications of galactic tech prior to the last two conceptions.

I don't feel the non-existent son's non-life was much considered in the calculus. Though Kou might have had covert experienced opinions about the disadvantages of being a prole male.

The choice of a replicator was enthusiastically embraced by Drou, as soon as it became available/affordable to them, after one trial to see what happens, and a second to confirm that yeah, this pregnancy/childbirth thing kinda sucks for the mother, somatically. (Physical fitness being a value for Drou. And Kou, at a remove, ouch.)

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answer presently unknown, to either Pen or Des or their author. It is possible that if Pen is long-lived enough, their melding would have effects not feasible to be seen before in any other shorter-lived sorcerer-demon pairing. We're talking centuries here, not mere decades. Which would have other effects on Pen, over time, as everyone he's ever loved dies before him...

Or, y'know, it may not be possible, and the extended life the attempt by them both to stave off that inevitable end as long as possible, or till they're both ready to throw in the towel. A certain flavor of elegiac tragedy either way.

Ta, L.
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I just did my annual rerad of Komarr/ACC and wanted to thank you for writing. I've gotten a bunch of friends into your work and there's almost always a Vorkosigan or Pen/Des readthrough happening in my Discord server's liveblog channel. You've enriched all our lives immeasurably; thank you again. Here is a question mark to satisfy Goodreads?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you for the kind words!

And thanks again especially for reccing by books onward to other readers. My career lives almost entirely by such word-of-mouth. Slow but sure?

Ta, L.
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I have a sphynx name Desdemona who I will be losing and I wish commemorate her with a tattoo of her paw print. I was wondering if The Bastard has some kind of symbol I could use to frame the paw print?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The only thing of the sort I can think of is the 5-sided seal we used for the Vilnoc Bastard's Order on the title pages of some of the ebooks and elsewhere. One paw up and one down, in place of the hands? "No Paws But Ours" ... Take a look, see what you think.

And condolences on your loss. Those are hard.

Ta, L.
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Miles is famously allergic to fastpenta. In 'Shards of Honor' Cordelia seems to have a similar if milder reaction to the airborne sedative in the therapists office. Is that a genetic trait that got passed on to Miles? Any any relation to the haute ladies genetically engineered resistance to truth drugs?
Lois McMaster Bujold
It is dimly possible that Cordelia's reaction and Miles's reaction have related underlying genetic traits, though Miles, as we know, has idiosyncratic fetal development. Re: the haut ladies, anybody's guess, though there is the possibility of convergent evolution. Though they had to start from somewhere.

Ta, L.
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RE gene cleaning as the best birthday gift. There are steps between removing deleterious genes, choosing the best genes in the sperm sample, looking for rare existing variations (better than 20/20 vision, lactic acid breakdown), and going full haute boutique genome. Given their history with the Cetagandans and their militaristic inclination, would the Barrayarans be tempted into their own eugenic project?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Hard to say, between the Barrayarans' aversion to deformity, and their aversion to genetic manipulation/mutations. Removing known deleterious genes, yes, absolutely. Choosing the "best" genes, probably, though that leads directly into the question, not often enough asked, best for what? Anything beyond is an open question, possibly coming down to decisions by individual parents and their genetic counselors.

A generational drift toward tighter standards seems likely, but that will take some time and not be very visible.

Ta, L.
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I read the post on FB regarding Penric 14, (& was thrilled); the idea of it not having a title yet made me wonder; I've read about authors who start with a title before, but not one who ended with one. Is this an authorial quirk?
Lois McMaster Bujold
For me, it varies from story to story. Sometimes the title arises early in the writing process -- "Penric and the Bandit" actually had its title first. "The Warrior's Apprentice" came up about Chapter 5, as I recall, and stuck. Other times, a tale will arrive at its end with none, or a joke working title -- "Ivan, His Booke", "Miles to Go", "Cordelia on Sergyar" -- and I have to flail around, like now, to come up with anything satisfactory. (I think I've finally settled on "The Adventure of the Demonic Ox", unless something obviously better comes along before the cover art and final edit are done.)

"A Civil Campaign" was another late entry. It went through its whole composition joke-titled "ImpWed". I thought I had it nailed when a clever friend suggested "Rules of Engagement" but it turned out Elizabeth Moon had a book already in Baen's publishing pipeline with that title, so it was back to the drawing board. After some more flailing, I drew inspiration from Heyer's "A Civil Contract" (which has a nice double meaning for its book), retooled for Miles's military madness. I'm actually happier with it now, as no other book has the same much-used title.

Ta, L.
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In the World of the Five Gods, we know that a sorcerer who kills with magic will lose his/her demon to the Bastard. Imagine that the sorcerer uses magic to weaken a component of a bridge; the bridge collapses and people die. Does it make a difference whether the collapse happens immediately, 5 seconds later, 5 minutes later, 5 hours later, 5 days later? Apologies if this is already answered somewhere.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't at this time have an answer to this, and neither does Pen, which makes him properly cautious. It is said, obliquely, that abortions for ectopic pregnancies are allowed to sorcerer-physicians. Similar medical triage where you can save one person but not both, likewise, I expect.

When Pen set the harbor on fire in "The Orphans of Raspay", it is also unknown if anyone died later of injuries received in the chaos, but it's possible some did.

The thing about the Bastard's rules, as contrasted with, probably, the Father's, is that they are not mathematically certain, but rather are ad hoc individual judgements, every time and for every case, which no one who is not an omnisentient god could possibly duplicate.

It is possible to tell for sure if one has violated the... guideline, because one will suddenly be demonless and stripped of one's magical powers. Being as-it-were pardoned would be harder to tell. I think one requirement for fault is intent, premeditation; deaths occasioned by accident, likely not, considering how accident-prone demon-powered sorcerers are. In your example, did the hypothetical sorcerer intend for people to die? Then he will likely shortly be out of luck (and out of demon.)

Ta, L.
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In one of Barbara Hambly’s fantasy series wizards/magic use had been outlawed/severely curtailed because the world was entering an Industrial Revolution and it's so easy for a wizard to wreck machinery for paid industrial sabotage or personal animus. Given how demons shed chaos (Otta/Atto in weaving room, sorcerers on boats), do you have any thoughts as to what may happen to sorcerers if/when the Wot5G has an IR?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Interesting thought, and no, I haven't explored the notion. There might be an uptick in adherents to the Quadrene heresy...

That said, there is some question if, in a world where magic demonstrably works, the brainpower might all go off in pursuit of magic and theology instead of science. However, since mages are a very limited resource, there would still be plenty of motivation for practical labor-saving devices for everyone else. It would be good to get enough alternate power sources going to pull the plug on most slavery, to be sure.

Ta, L.
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Des explains their differing reactions to the Bastard at the end of ‘Demon Daughter’ that Atto is too young to be corrupt and so doesn’t fear Him, and Des is too old not to be corrupt and so fears being taken by Him. Is there any possible fate for a demon other than their destruction at some point, either by a Saint of the Bastard after ascending their host, or by the Bastard Himself for killing a person?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Answer unknown at this time. If there is another fate, it is very rare.

The third method of destruction for a demon is to be stuck somewhere when their host dies with no other possible living host within jumping range. In which case they more-or-less evaporate. (Neither plants nor insects can support a demon, nor most cold-blooded animals except the very largest.)

Ta, L.
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Cordelia is apparently, as Emperor Ezar puts it near the end of Shards of Honor, "some sort of theist." I wonder how she got that way. We don't hear anything I can recall about religious traditions on Beta, which seems a modern-style secular society. Is there something in her background that gave rise to that frame of mind?
Lois McMaster Bujold Whatever philosophical club she was into on Beta probably bore more resemblance to Unitarian Universalists than anything else in our time/place. 40 years of Barrayar seem to have worn it down a good bit.

Ta, L.
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Not sure if you saw yet, but you show up as an answer (incorrect, alas) in a NY Times Book Review Quiz: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/16/books/review/adventure-movie-novels.html I hope some curious quiz-takers will look up your books! And because I need a question mark...?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This URL has a sign-up barrier - can you tell us what it said?

Curious, but not enough to sign up, L.
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One thing that struck me in the WGW series was Dag denying that he had to return to the Lakewalkers and fight malices with them their way because he was necessary the cause, and said that it should never get to the point where any one person is indispensable. Now it seems there are quite a few people all over the political spectrum insisting that they are indispensable. Any thoughts on Being the MC vs group effort?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not especially; all I had to say in the subject was in the tetralogy. That said, the Lakewalkers are very much about group efforts, because the malices are a multi-generational problem with no certain end. Rather like wrong in our world, that way.

I have read some interesting musings on the hydra-headed aspects of well-designed democratic systems, that they are resilient because they DON'T depend on single individuals or choke points. There's always another layer to step up and take over.

Ta, L.
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Generally since the higher a person’s status the more they are able to get away with, was Ezar’s concern over Serg mostly about erratic and destructive decision making rather than his “personal hobbies” or was he concerned Serg would eventually move on to Vor women, causing a Vor revolt? Is there even a concept of human rights or are any rights seen only in the lord/subject relationship? And would that evolve?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Mostly Ezar was concerned over Serg's poor political nous, on all levels including the personal. "The personal is political" and all that.

There are quite a lot of rights variously embedded in the peculiar Barrayaran version of a feudal system, running in all directions like a network. Since everyone has some place in the net, at least in theory, human rights and feudal rights aren't really separable in this legal conception.

Keep in mind, "rights" are a shared fiction (Terry Pratchett had some cogent comments on that) which will last only while enough people with enough power believe they will, and are willing to work to make it so. In that, the Barrayaran system is not substantively different from any other.

Ta, L.
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In Wot5G as the Gods are real but not material, how much are theology/religious beliefs from divine inspiration vs man-made? Could someone create a new theology (aside from Quadrene)? Start a weird sex cult? Claim to be a priest from a distant land with different gods that can intervene directly/cure disease/bestow good fortune,etc (for donations)? Would they eventually get stopped by a real divine/saint/sorcerer/god?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The underlying godly reality is real, any flourishes mainly devoted to status competitions are human-made.

Yes, people could make all the same kinds of bogus claims that infest our world. Especially toxic ones might be stopped by someone. I've had some notions on that score for Penric's missions, but they haven't gone anywhere yet. Or, y'know, be stopped by time, of which the gods have much.

Ta, L.
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“The Mountains of Mourning” shows the Barrayan system in action. In the case of someone getting disappeared by ImpSec, the only recourse would seem to be to be family/friends going to their Count and asking him to intervene, which would probably mean him going to the emperor, as ImpSec seems to be operating without any restraint except from the Emperor & Auditors. That suggests ImpSec has a fairly recent origin?
Lois McMaster Bujold
You know I don't, actually, have a 30-volume set of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage, right...?

That said, ImpSec most likely originates to when the counts were pared down to bodyguards of 20 armsmen each, making it much harder for them to make disruptive local wars on each other, Dorca the Just's great achievement. The Emperor, natch, with his wider responsibilities and hazards, needed more than the 20 men due Count Vorbarra, so the seeds of ImpSec likely started just before the end of the Time of Isolation when that occurred. Whatever it was then got upwhacked, along with everything else, by the Cetagandan invasion. ImpSec proper got its start after the invasion, with Yuri taking whatever Dorca had left him and expanding it. More renovations when Ezar took over, and yet more reform under Aral and Illyan, which the books touch on.

There is an enormous amount of varied common or customary law in play all over Barrayar, quite non-uniform, which I don't often get into because that's not what my books are about. But just as the fact that characters eat food implies a working agriculture somewhere, the fact that Barrayar is not a dystopian hellscape, but rather a bunch of people muddling along somehow, implies a working legal system out there, operating at all required levels. It has rather more in common with British models than American, or continental ones that have their roots ultimately in Roman jurisprudence.

Re: British law, strong book rec: Uncommon Law by A. P. Herbert, if you can find a copy. It's parody, but such a close one that many people have mistaken it for nonfiction.

Ta, L.
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Other than being raised with a strong moral code and sense of noblesse oblige, it seems that despite the Council of Counts and the Ministers, the only real check of the Emperor’s power is the threat of the Emperor becoming disliked enough to send enough popular support over to a relative to win a coup, hence Yuri’s Massacre and Barrayar’s stated bloody history. Or has there been a balancing act of power shifts?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Again, I don't actually have a 30-volume edition of The Encyclopedia Barrayarica in my garage that would answer this question in the detail it would require. But both the government/s and the legal system/s are more complicated that the books can show, since that's mostly not what they are about; I'm generally more interested in exploring the impacts of novel technologies, since they fall on the just and the unjust alike. That's the sort of thing that really changes worlds, often in subtle or subliminal or unnoticed ways that add up chaotically, in both the mathematical and common senses. Worked example: the entirety of human history on Old Earth. "Technology changes the ambit of the possible," would be my most succinct way of putting it.

I think of technology in the broadest sense, here; agriculture is a technology; armies are a technology, and so on. A combination of social organization and tools, combined to produce novel outcomes.

Ta, L.
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I was rereading The Warrior's Apprentice, and Bothari's impassioned speech just before he was killed really struck me. I never felt empathy for that character before, but his desperate wish was to be buried at the foot of Cordelia's grave. In Gentleman Jole, Cordelia is moving forward with life on Sergyar. Does she plan for her eventual remains to be interred on Sergyar, or on Barrayar?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I don't actually know what she and Jole will finally decide. I presently see her living actively into her late 140s, with Jole keeping up, thanks to Mark's Fountain of Middle Age. Jole, barely managing to keep his promise, won't be more than a year behind her in death, though. She will at that point have given 4 decades to Barrayar, but 7 decades to Sergyar. (I do hope she can get that planet renamed at some point, but I've no idea to what.) Wherever they end up, it will be together. I can see them wishing to rejoin Aral, but it may not be entirely up to them at that point but rather, to their many descendants. Miles, the other person who would care the most, will be long gone by that time.

Ta, L.
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I have been in touch with someone at loismcmasterb@gmail.com who claims to be you. Is that you, or a person claiming to be you?
Lois McMaster Bujold
That is not me!

By all means, out the troll.

Ta, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Glad you're enjoying the books!

Demonic dissolution is indeed about the same thing as sundering, only on fast-forward. Desdemona's ultimate fate is undetermined at this time, but is certainly one reason she's trying so hard to keep Pen alive.

One possibility may be that she's reached the maximum size of demon that any human head can hold, and her next jump would entail some trimming, mutilation, or loss, like a human-expanded demon going back into an animal. It might not be good for the human target, either. Demons aren't Great Beasts, but one also remembers the messy fate of Pen's Great Earthworm experiment. Another is that over some unusually long sorcerer's life, the human-demon amalgam may undergo some change-of-state that makes such a, for lack of a clearer term, soul-upload to the god possible. Des is in no hurry to test the problem.

Ta, L.
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Re; Q&A below, can a demon have too many lives/get too dense for the human host to control even with temple training? Des’s age is noted as unusual, implying that most demons either die when they can’t jump to a suitable new host or they ascend and get taken by a saint before they reach Des’s age. Des is canny enough to realize what would happen if she ascends, but perhaps many demons can’t resist all that fun chaos?
Lois McMaster Bujold Yep. The answer to the problem is a saint, unhappily for the demon.

Joen's demon, from Paladin of Souls, might be an example of what happens when such a demon manages to avoid any saint for too long. See also, Tigney.

Ta, L.
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Question for the Sharing Knife Universe: Are there any 'large' cities in Luthlia, or nothing by small towns the size of Glassforge and the like. I recon Ironforge is easily 15 - 20 thousand people, Glassforge is 5 Thousand. I can't see anything in Luthlia being larger the 5K people, from the carrying capacity (agricultural capacity) of the land. Or is it just small family encampments?
Lois McMaster Bujold
There are indeed large farmer towns, but not yet up to the size of what we consider cities. 20k would be at the top of the range. 10k - 20k, probably several.

Lakewalker encampments have smaller upper limits, due to food economics, plus the perpetual drain of fielding patrols, tho' I expect the sessile ones in the south will be growing beyond that.

Ta, L.
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As I begin to read Free Falling after reading the series thus far in the chronological timeline of the Vorkosigan family, I wanted to express my gratitude for your creation. My dad read this series as a kid (I am 24) and not only has this series formed a camaraderie between us as we bonded over Miles and his adventure, but this series reminded me of my love of reading. Thank you! (Including a ? so I can post this lol)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wonderful to hear!

Ta, L.
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Wot5G deals with the difference between a Great Soul and what is deemed a Great Person (power, wealth, military victories, etc.) Sometimes a god does favor a soldier. How do the other gods feel about & react to a god’s favorite going around harvesting before their time the souls they are trying to cultivate? Do they understand wars as other than an odd increase in souls? Can the gods even communicate with each other?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can only definitively answer the last of these -- yes, the gods can communicate with each other. Doubtless in ways and depths humans can barely understand.

Technically, what regulates the number of deaths the gods receive is the number of births. Strict 1:1 ratio, at all times and in all places. Nothing ever changes that.

Ta, L.
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Sorry about question below, character limit. Presumably deaths normally occur at a more or less steady rate, then there’s a war & sudden upsurge in violent/traumatic deaths, do the gods recognize that as war? Unless upswings in the death count in one part of the world get evened out worldwide? As the gods can’t comprehend boundaries, how aware are they that one of their favorites may be causing all that carnage?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I imagine if one of their Favorites is causing that much carnage, he will shortly become unfavorite. See: the eventual fate of the Golden General.

The gods are omnisentient, though perhaps not omniscient (and certainly not omnipotent) as they are inside time. There is nothing alive that They do not know, inside and out, all at once, all the time.

Ta, L.
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I just wanted to let you know about something weird I've just noticed about your Vorkosigan books? On both Amazon and Audible, the series is called "Miles Vorsokigan". I got *really* confused for a minute, wondering how I could be misremembering Vorkosigan so poorly for 3+decades, until I saw that the books are all labeled correctly. It's just the "collection" or whatever it's called that's wrong. FYI. :)
Lois McMaster Bujold Yes, my agent and I have been trying for years to get that typo corrected. Amazon Help, which isn't, keeps sending us around in circles. I can't correct it because I wasn't the originator-of-record of the placement, and am not allowed; my agent can't because of some other argle-barge about content-versus-label, and Amazon won't, at either of our requests. Very frustrating.

It's strictly a Kindle problem, not any of our other vendors.

Gnash, L.
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Accidentally on purpose. I can't recall if I'd been thinking about Wyn's future when I wrote that passage, but I already had it in mind from very early in my thoughts about Pen's and Nikys's future children. Before I had any ideas for Rina, or Otta was even thought of.

Ta, L.

Ta, L.
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How long does it take a demon to learn to talk? I would have expected Atto to be talking by the time of Demonic Ox but you didn't mention it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
It varies with the demon. With one that's transferring from another human, as long as it takes to "put down roots" in its new host.

With a new elemental, a little can depend on the intelligence of the animal from which it came, and how deeply that was imprinted. Weeks or months, typically, to begin talking, longer to gain fluency.

Atto is a peculiar case, in that it, for all practical purposes, never had any host but Otta, and so can hardly be differentiated from her. The two are so nearly one as to be conjoined. That will of course change on the next transfer.

Ta, L.
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I'm a independent author. How can I promote my books for free so they become more visible on Amazon Kindle Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, parasitizing my blog is a pretty smarmy way to try.

If this is actually a serious question, you'd do better to Ask Google. I'm sure you could get about 10,000 answers.

None of which will be "write books good enough that readers will recommend them to each other", which is the only way I've found that works over time. (Also the only way that will continue to work after one is dead, I reflect.)

Ta, L.
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Dying Ezar took comfort in atheism. In Wot5G someone like Ezar could choose sundering for fear of the unknown or judgement. How judgmental are the gods? The Bastard’s Hell is mentioned, is that where souls taken in the death miracle go? Anyone else? The Bastard takes those the other gods won’t, thieves, prostitutes, etc, but Des said there are those too vile like the psychopathic bandit chief. How many are too vile?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The Bastard's Hell is simply insta-sundering, a soul boiled down to chaos, all information lost. Humans for whom this does not seem revenge enough make up more artistic interpretations to tell each other, for consolation or threat, but that's not from the gods.

The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into themselves to become part of themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)

Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.

No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. It follows that most souls taken in the death miracle are such toxic persons. (It's technically possible for both souls to be insta-sundered, or rendered, and also for both to be sorted to gods who want them, but far more often the supplicant-soul just goes on to unite with the Bastard like any other of His portion, and the target-soul is boiled down.) Note that this is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into.

As for "how many", you are asking me to decide how many people there are or ever have been in this world, and make a god's eye taste-test of each, which seems too large as task before my second cup of tea.

(If you are asking "what proportion", the taste-test problem still applies. But the gods do try not to waste their food.)

Ta, L.
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In “Penric and the Bandit”, Pen compares the Bastard’s very flexible type of justice that would seek ways to save Roz from a life of crime and set him on a better path to the Father’s law-based justice that would instead presumably only punish him (losing a hand or hanging). Do all the Gods have their own version/style/sense of justice, and would you be able to venture what they might be?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is similar to the question you just asked, but since Goodreads randomly sorts the Q&A, unless you select newest-first, I'd better repeat the relevant parts of the answer here.

To quote myself: "The gods are not so much judgmental as choosy. After all, they are talking these souls up into Themselves to become part of Themselves, as a person takes up food. (Open question how much souls are "digested" over time... But if one has less than 100 years in the world of matter, and thousands of years Beyond, it's inevitable that the latter experience must loom larger over enough time.)

Think of it as some gods really liking broccoli, but disliking green beans, so swapping those portions across the table with their sibling gods.

No god wants to consume actual poison, spoiled or toxic food. In which case one could also think of the Bastard's hell as the gods' sanitation department/water treatment facility. ... Note that this [sorting] is not a mechanical process; you will never get a hard-and-fast rule for the result in advance, since it will sensitively depend on, so to speak, the fine grain of the initial conditions; the hearts of men that only the gods can see into."

"Punishment" is something humans do, sometimes with good reason to protect their communities. They project this style of thinking onto their god/s; possibly that's where the Father of Winter has acquired His bias in a more literal fashion.

Which makes the evolution/differentiation of the gods a somewhat circular process, each self-selecting souls to become more Themselves over time.

Ta, L.
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I just pre-ordered the Ukrainian translation of Shards of Honor and just wanted to say I'm so happy that Ukrainian readers who don't read in English can finally get acquainted with the Vorkosigan Saga in their mother tongue (and I have an excuse to re-read it for the fourth time). (Adding a ? because Goodreads wants it to actually look like a question.)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Wonderful!

I recently received through my agent a scan of the cover, which I thought quite good. I figured to post it on my blog closer to the pub date -- do you know when that is? With luck all around, the Ukrainian publisher plans to follow it up with Barrayar.

bests, Lois.
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If the Bastard’s Hell isn’t a place, but the process of a soul being stripped of all personal information and being boiled down into pure chaos, and demons are said to have escaped from the Bastard’s Hell, does that mean that demons come from the souls taken in the death miracle that find a host before dissolving into nothingness? If that’s the case, perhaps Quadrenes have some justification against the Bastard?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No.

The demons are a controlled leakage from the Bastard's hell, or hand, to balance the life in the world between the cold death of ice (stasis) and the hot death of fire (chaos.) Too much of either is bad.

The underpinnings of this theology _really_ are not based upon that of our Earth historical religions, and trying to draw 1:1 parallels between them will frequently go awry. (Though given the wild variety of human-devised religions through history, I am willing to be better advised.)

All information being lost, the source of one blob of chaos is not distinguishable from any other blob of chaos -- soul-plasma as it were, or quark soup. Entirely interchangeable.

Ta, L.
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Are there any plans to release “Penric and the Demonic Ox” as a traditional paper book? I understand the current economics of paper books and the publishing industry and the increasing unwillingness not to invest in books that aren’t likely to be mega sellers. Thanks for writing all these wonderful stories and for answering all my questions.
Lois McMaster Bujold
"Penric and the Demonic Ox" has been offered to Subterranean for their usual limited edition hardcover; I'll make a blog post if/when we get a contract. (As of this moment, August 2025, Blackstone Audio already has it in their production pipeline, release planned for October.)

I'm presently considering whether to put the remaining Pen & Des stories into my own print-on-demand collections. Much will depend on how the upcoming _Two Tales_, the little collection of stray Vorkosiverse novellas, does when we finally get it out via the Ingram's program, through which we've already done "Knife Children" and _The Spirit Ring_.

There are doubtless publishers who would take the remaining potential collections, but apart from the sales volume problem, they all want e-rights, which I'd be an economic idiot to give up. I do like the flexibility of the ala carte e-publication, that make dropping in prequel tales much less of an issue.

Ta, L.
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Dear Lois, I just want to say to you that I absolutely love your Chalion Trilogy. A huge compliment for your original and very engaging writing style! How dit you get this idea about demons infesting persons and creating havoc?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, demonic possession is a very old idea, both in fantasy as a reading genre, and in traditional folklore and (some) religion. In the World of the Five Gods, I'm just doing my own very different take upon the idea, because the underlying theology is so different from that of historical Europe, or indeed from any other real-world religion I've yet read about.

I explore my own construction in much greater depth in the Penric & Desdemona series, starting with the novella "Penric's Demon", if you've not got to that yet. (Show don't tell 'n all that.)

Ta, L.
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Regarding World of Five Gods: What is your relationship with theology? When building the theology of this universe, how much of it feels intentional, how much feels inspired? As a theology nerd, I'm ready to read a Karen Armstrong-level text analysis on the history and practical applications of the Five Gods.
Lois McMaster Bujold
My young-Midwesterner-dragged-to-church background has been supplemented by a lifetime of assorted reading, and now online Great Courses. After a whole bunch of church history from Roman and medieval European times, a surface acquaintance with Buddhism and Shinto, tiny bit on Hinduism, Chinese mythology which is in a class by itself. Ancient Egyptian gets a lot of coverage if one watches archeology programs. Pre-Christian Saxon/Germanic religions are, or were, hard to find much on back when I was researching _The Hallowed Hunt_; access may have improved since then. Other bits and bobs along the way.

I've done some reading of the writings of genuine mystics, most memorably (my memory is a sieve these days) St. Augustine and Thomas Merton, and a few deep meditative practices outside of the Christian sphere. What struck me most was their commonality, as if all were zeroing in on the same underlying thing, even if it was just the 60-cycle hum of their own biology.

When first setting up the 5 gods, it was not planned in advance, but rather, something I felt my way into as I wrote _The Curse of Chalion_. A few things I figured out very early on. I wanted a structure that resisted dualism, the easy good/evil divide that has caused so much trouble through history. Hence 5, a prime that can't be evenly divided, though of course humans being perverse like we are we immediately got dualism again with the Quadrene heresy.

Lots of fives in biology -- fingers, senses, some flowers, and on. It's very natural.

Another major initial reversal was that the 5 are not creator gods, but arise out of the workings of matter like everything else, a sort of World Overmind. They are inside time, and they _evolve_. They are thus neither omniscient nor omnipotent -- but the term omnisentient seems very apt.

Emergent properties were also much on my mind, talking of things that resist dualism. The mind-body or body/spirit problem, and all its logical snarls, drops away when body and mind are all part of the same thing. Take the fundamental structure of the universe, from which emerges physics, from which emerges chemistry, from which emerges biology, then brains, then consciousness -- take it up one fantasy step farther, and you can get plausible gods emerging. Endow them as well with perfect memories as well as perfect perceptions of Their pasts, and all pasts, and something pretty impressive... emerges.

Also, for life after death, the 5 are the only game in town.

A whole lot of the structural underpinnings of all this are drawn from biology, if you want another clue card. Because we are all biological organisms -- another only-game-in-town.

Many thoughts too on entropy, and how life temporarily resists it by, as someone put it, "climbing up the mast of a sinking ship". This comes out most in the magic.

Also, don't forget Narrative Constraints.

I talk about all this stuff scattered through many many interviews -- no way to auto-collate, I'm afraid, but there's this: https://vorkosigan.fandom.com/wiki/Au...

But I will certainly never be writing a textbook on all this invention -- I'd much rather spend my limited creative energy writing more fiction. (And I suspect you'd rather it, too.)

Ta, L.
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The Bastard has sorcerers, the Son has shamans, do the other gods have some extra-normal ability associated with them? If they do, have you thought out what they might be? Is there the possibility for other types of magic we haven’t seen yet?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not developed yet.

New developments are constrained, of course, by not contradicting prior ones. One way to sneak something new in might be to set it in a location the stories have not yet visited, of which there are potentially many.

I'd really love to have 5-gods-India Temple dancers, for example, but have never settled where to put an India analogue. Or a China one. Northern hemisphere, land mass quite disconnected from the southern cod-Europe, probably -- I very much fancy a very off-course and storm battered Chinese Imperial fleet limping into Visping Harbor about 1491-equivalent. Extra points if it is commanded by an eunuch admiral. So much xianxia to steal be inspired by...

5GU Lithuania and points east are another possibility for interesting local magics. And the steppe lands also to the east, already established as existing, and contiguous -- lots of interesting early Church histories to draw on there, as the Greek church missionaries penetrated Rus, less well-known than the war/conquest histories of the region.

Many possibilities, no decisions. A story must pass through it for a setting to be generated. And I really can't make up stories in advance of making up stories.

Ta, L.
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In the Wot5G, do saints have an ability/duty specific to their god, like the Bastard’s saints being able to remove demons? I vaguely recall the Father’s saints maybe being able to compel truth or discern truth from lies, or did I misremember? And the Mother’s saints involved with healing?? What about the others? Thanks for any thoughts you might have.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Making it up as I go, of course. Yes, some Father's saints are canonically able to detect lies, and some Mother's saints to do healing. Other abilities not yet specified. Cazaril, Ista, and Umegat you've met. Cazaril was a full-on saint of the Daughter of Spring, with a boost from the Bastard. Note in this world being a saint, i.e., channeling a god, is a temporary job not necessarily a permanent identity.

That poor shaman who got buried under the rockfall in "Penric and the Shaman" was probably as close to being a saint of the Son of Autumn as it's possible to get.

Ta, L.
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Would you be willing to make an authorial statement of the status of the WGW outside of Lakewalker/Farmer lands? If the malice disaster was limited to that continent or was worldwide, and if so, are there other survivors? Were there any other cultures at the same level of ground/mage technology, and did they know what happened? Did they quarantine the area & are they keeping a close eye in case a malice escapes?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I've a notion there are survivors beyond the Great Blight and whatever lies athwart it, on the west coast. Some farmer navigator will discover it someday, circling the south coast. No, I don't know anything more than that.

The logical options for other continents are: fully blighted, slowly recovering but unpeopled; partly blighted, and fighting by some means magically related to what we've seen; or unblighted or fully cleaned, peopled, and keeping all other continents in quarantine. Or, some of each.

(When a malice had fully blighted its bounded region, a continent at the largest, but also possibly a closed circle or wall of other blight and, say, seacoast, it will die of starvation.)

I have a very dim memory of some reference to other continents on old maps somewhere in the tetralogy, but I couldn't for the life of me find it now.

Ta, L.
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If two malices meet, they will fight until one completely “consumes” the other. What about unhatched malices? Will it get drained by a mobile malice that encounters it? Or get passively drained if it’s in an area getting blighted? Or are they not really alive until they hatch and start consuming ground? Wondering if the Great Blight would be considered cleared once it recovers however many thousands of years later.
Lois McMaster Bujold
The actual answers to most of your questions are "not developed yet". Applying a bit of off-the-cuff logic, it does seem probable that any unhatched malices would be killed by another's blight. When blight recovers, it spawns no more malices, so that notion is supported. By the same logic, the Great Blight would indeed be malice-free once it recovers, whenever. Not a fast process.

Ta, L.
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I just learned about Sir Ewan Forbes, a trans nobleman born in 1912 who successfully sued to inherit his baronetcy in 1965 over the objections of his cousin. I immediately thought of Dono, of course. Did you know about his case when you wrote Civil Campaign, or is it an interesting coincidence?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Nope, had never heard of him. Donna/Dono was invented out of the needs of a subplot for Ivan, on the spot as it were. He got a life of his own pretty instantly as I wrote him.

I had heard of other historical people gender-switching before then, usually women passing as men to become soldiers.

ACC was written in 1998, for anyone calibrating influences.

Ta, L.
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I just finished Andrew Roberts' excellent biography of Napoleon. I kept thinking, "This guy sure reminds me of Miles Vorkosigan." I was tickled by one detail: Miles' opinion that a shower is as good as three hours' sleep (from Cryoburn, I think?) is shared by Napoleon, although his quote is about a bath and four hours. I'm curious about the extent to which biographical details about Napoleon inspired Miles.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Not much Napoleon in Miles, no. Initial historical precedents/inspirations that I can recall were T. E. Lawrence and young Winston Churchill. And my own experience with Great Man's Offspring syndrome.

Later, after Miles was launched, people brought my attention to other quirky short soldiers of history, including Eugene of Savoy and the very interesting Homer Lea. (I recommend both to your attention.) But they were very much after the fact.

Ta, L.
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I recently read Edward James' book on you (in the Modern Masters of Sciense Fiction series). In it, you are quoted, saying: "I've often wondered if, somewhere in my writerly apprenticeship and unknown or forgotten by myself, I'd made some sort of deal with the Infernal Powers that my books would stay in print forever, but the covers would always be *dire*". Do you feel Pen&Des have somehow lifted this curse?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Heh. Yes, recent covers are an improvement, both from Subterranean Press and from Ron Miller. Nevertheless, all the old ones are still following me around, in used bookstores if nowhere else.

(Quite a few of my old covers were actually good art, but very ill-served by some obscuring poor cover design, and/or the fact that they did not convey the actual content or tone of the story they encased.)

If I had my wish my book covers would all be plain blue rectangles with title, author's name, and any pertinent series information, and nothing else. But that seems not to be the fashion.

Word-of-mouth routes around cover treatment, and I value it greatly. Keep it up, folks...

Ta, L.
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I've recently had the pleasure of re-reading Komarr, a book I first read when I was too young to understand it, and reread when I was too newly married to appreciate it. Thank you for producing this wonderful book- the SF is excellent, but the insight into human nature is even better. I don't live in the States, and finding copies of your works is extremely difficult. Any chance of a box set being released? POD?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thanks for the rereads of increasing understanding!

Almost all my titles are widely and instantly available as ebooks and audio downloads, internationally on Kindle, Apple Books, Google Play Books, Rakuten Kobo, and (US only) Barnes & Noble's Nook. I don't see how, if you have enough computer power to be here, you can't get to them through at least one of these vendor platforms. I can't speak to the other vendors, but Amazon gives away their Kindle app as a free download, in multiple formats for multiple kinds and brands of devices.

I don't know how to make this any easier.

A paper boxed set seems unlikely. Print-on-demand may happen someday, although my current two, about to be three, PoD titles, have been selling in too small of numbers to make it an obvious thing to try, given the start-up hassles. For the moment, the ones we have are through Ingram Spark, which I believe is US-only (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about that) and through Amazon -- I don't know how their PoD program works internationally. (Have any non-US readers out there been able to successfully order The Spirit Ring or "Knife Children" PoDs though this on Amazon international?)

Ta, L.
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I mostly read your books on Audible. I've read all of Vorkosigan and the three main Five Gods books and want to start Penric but its hard to justify using a years worth of credits for short stories. Do you have any plans to release the collections as audiobooks to help solve this sort of issue? Side question: When the Audible Plus program was first introduced why were only some seemly random books available through?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Your Penric problem is alas between you and your budget. I'd point out that they are novellas, not short stories -- each about a third of an average novel long, if that helps your calculations. I suppose you could try the first one, "Penric's Demon", and decide then if they are worth it. Or pick one up once in a while when you are having an otherwise too-busy-to-listen-much month?

The collections, technically, are not mine -- they are a Baen Books exclusive, and Baen does not have audio rights to them. So, no to that one.

Re: Audible, you'd have to ask them. I have no idea why my works were acquired in the order they were, whether constraints were budget or processing time or someone purchasing who had no idea what they were. (Wholesale buyers can't possibly read all the books they acquire for their employers; they have to use other metrics to decide.) I don't actually know how Audible's credits or indeed business generally work, not being an audio consumer myself.

Ta, L.
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I love your work. I pre-purchase as soon as the option is available, add the release dates to my calendar, and countdown the days until publication! You have eight books not yet bundled together for the World of the Five Gods anthology series. That's enough for two more additions and most of a third! Will you continue this series and if so, do you have any idea when a fourth book might be forthcoming? Thank you.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I do indeed have enough Pen & Des stories for a couple more paper collections, and have packaged them that way for foreign sales, though so far the foreign publishers seem to prefer to buy the novellas ala carte and make their own assemblages.

The paper-only Baen version started out promising with sales, then the second volume was released in May 2020 when all the bookstores were closing, and so tanked through no fault of its own. Third one has not done well in sales, as far as I can tell from my royalty reports (which always arrive a year or more out of date, so, more history than current events.) I don't think any publisher could make bank with further paper volumes only, and most won't take paper without e-rights that that would reduce my income from them by half. There are scenarios where this would be a good choice, but I'm not there at this time.

Meanwhile, my ala carte e-editions and audio editions are selling just fine, and retain more flexibility for inserting prequels (which I've just again done, with the coming-very-soon "Testimony of Mute Things".)

So, short answer, no more paper collections are in the pipeline at this time. They are not ruled out for the future, but that's not up to just me.

Ta, L.
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I suppose the answer will be "if narrative causality demands it* but I have to ask: is Jin Sato almost destined to become a biologist on Sergyar under the instruction of commodore Jole [ret.]? Or the Betan Survey. (Or both). Iknow the Vorkosigan series has ended ... Three times? But this ending feels the realest and so Jin's higher education ambitions will sadly be unexplored ...
Lois McMaster Bujold
Another question for FanficPerson, I expect. Personally, I see Jin as a future zookeeper, though probably a biologist as well. (Think Gerald Durrell, who was a partial inspiration for the character -- see his classic memoir My Family & Other Animals. Which is a great read, btw.) On what planet is an open question.

Ta, L.
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Do you know when Testimony of Mute Things will be available on Amazon?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Real Soon Now! Later this week (10/20/25) if all goes to plan.

I will, as usual, make a blog post with links when it goes live.

Ta, L.
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In “The Assassins of Thesalon” Methani was unwillingly sundered and Penric thinks Tronio is likely to be as well since Tronio hasn’t accepted he did anything wrong. That implies if Tronio realizes & accepts he’s displeased the gods he might escape sundering? Or is he too “spoiled” to be accepted by a god in the short time before he’s executed? How does one become “unspoiled”, a lifetime of good works or another way?
Lois McMaster Bujold
This is a question that only a god can answer, through inner knowledge unavailable to human perceptions, a very private transaction between each human and their chosen or choosing (or rejected or rejecting) deity. There is no list of rules that one may mechanically check off to ensure a particular outcome.

Sincere repentance likely does count for something. (Not everyone, after all, is going to get an extended lifetime to make amends.) And the god would know whether or not the person was faking contrition in a mere self-centered attempt to avoid reprisal.

Ta, L.
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Hello! Minor Vorkosigan question here, but all of the armsmen whose family names we learn are proles not Vor. Is the status of armsmen barred to Vor (due to conflicting oaths), or were armsmen historically of the Vor caste and the prevalence of proles a consequence of the opening of the military and new institutions like ImpSec and the municipal guard?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Armsmen are traditionally proles from the count's own district, yes. This custom presumably extends back into and from the Time of Isolation. I expect, as with all things on Barrayar, there have been exceptions.

Ta, L.
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The Sharing Knife maps are remarkably similar to the Midwest of North America. This has made me wonder occasionally whether it's really the far future of our own world - if one assumes a technological culture was succeeded by one based on groundwork, which then fell. Or is this an alternate America, like Patricia Wrede's Frontier Magic?
Lois McMaster Bujold It's an entirely alternate world, not our far future. I just borrowed some prefab worldbuilding.

Hey, if Terry Pratchett can do it with the Chalk, I can do it with the Ohio River...

Ta, L.
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Next year, 2026, marks 40 years since your first books were published in 1986. Congratulations on four decades of actively writing and publishing so many enjoyable and impactful tales! Are you or anyone else making special plans to celebrate this upcoming milestone?
Lois McMaster Bujold Not yet!

(Padding for effect, I often count my career as starting in late 1982, when I first started writing those books that were first published. But nothing says I can't have two (career) birthdays. Like Miles.)

Ta, L.
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On a re-read I noticed right at the end of Penric & the Fox when Pen is telling Llewen about Baroness kin Pikepool's idea for expanding Pen's plates into a printing press etc & Llewen tells Pen to have her secretary "explain the concept of a percentage recompense to you." but I don't remember this being addressed again. Does Pen have a big pile-up of royalties & income waiting in an account for him back in the Weald?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Ah, glad someone noticed that.

I fancy that modest sums are forwarded to Pen now and then. This will get harder to effect the farther he moves away. Medieval international banking is a fascinating real-life study. But usually money transfers came down to finding some hopefully trustworthy person going that way, giving them the purse, and hoping they didn't run into disasters along the route. Erratic method.

One of the interesting anecdotes from my great-something uncle the ironclad riverboat medic in the American Civil War was about entrusting his year's pay to be taken home to New Hampshire by hand, and it never arriving. I'm not sure what $500 translates to in today's dollars, but that loss had to have hurt.

(See: The Gerould Family of New Hampshire in the Civil War: Two Diaries and a Memoir on Kindle.)

Ta, L.
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I’d like to wish you a pleasant birthday, as you join the rest of us ‘49ers. I recently baked a cake for my spouse - her birthday was Oct 26, and she wanted a peanut butter cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. She got it. I hope your birthday wishes are granted. (Obligatory: ?)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Thank you!

My birthday is going pretty well, starting with living to have it... Otherwise a nice quiet Minnesota fall day, remote relatives reporting in by phone, my son to arrive with fancy pizza for dinner in due course. My best present came a little early, with "Testimony of Mute Things" topping out in the 80s in the top 100 of the Kindle store yesterday. (Which commonly happens the 2nd weekend of sales, but still nice.)

Ta, L.
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I'm a bit confused about Umegat's groom, Daris. At the end of the book, it seems implied that Daris was the man Umegat fell in love with, when he was in the Roknari islands. But Umegat says that man was hanged, so what is Daris's story?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Umegat's first love was indeed horribly executed. Daris was a later love. Who also ran into grave perils, presumably on some joint spying mission, possibly against the Golden General's forces, but at least he survived. There might have been a heroic or at least clever rescue by Umegat in there somewhere.

Ta, L.
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I enjoy the Penric & Desdemona series very much! I wondered if there is an audiobook planned for "Testimony of Mute Things"?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can now say that there is! Blackstone contract is supposedly en route, and will get here when it gets here.

Word is they will try to move production along briskly, and have Grover Gardner as narrator again. Couple of months, maybe? Average the lead times of the last three between epub and audio release, and you can likely get a good estimate.

Ta, L.
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Where in the timeline of P&D stories does Testimony fall? It must be earlier since the story includes the Princess-Archdivine but other than that I don't know.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Well, I did explicitly give Pen's age -- 27, was it? Might have been 26. A couple of years before Llewen's death, and Pen's mother's. He was 30 when he first reached Cedonia, so must have been ~29 during his year in Lodi/Adria.

For a few more markers, he was 19 when he contracted Des, ~22 when he graduated seminary. 23 - 24, for "Shaman" and "Fox".

Ta, L.
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Rather belatedly, I find myself wondering whether “Penric’s Fox” was at all inspired by the use of foxes in the Rivers of London series. Of course, there may be no connection at all (and the fox has made no second appearance). Would you care to comment?
Lois McMaster Bujold
The foxes in "Penric's Fox" were directly observed and inspired by the family of foxes who took up residence under my garden shed for two wonderful springs, to the great benefit of all my garden plants suddenly not being chewed down to the roots by rabbits. Six or eight fuzzy fox cubs tumbling over one another playing out beside the shed were a dose of cuteness (I will not say overdose) that had even the neighbors stopping to watch. I wish the foxes would come back, and the rabbits be their lunches... Alas, only those two years.

Something else is under there this year but I haven't seen what. Suspect it's raccoons, but, despite also being fun to watch if you catch them in daylight, can carry distemper or rabies, and leave problematic droppings.

So, no connection to the Rivers of London, fun reading though that series is.

Ta, L.
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Hi, not a question but I'm following you on X and your recent activity there has been a little... questionable! I think your account may have been hacked... Question mark because the form requires it?
Lois McMaster Bujold
I am not, and never will be, on X. I am only on Goodreads. That person is a scammer/impersonator.

I am told I can only get them thrown off X if I sign up myself, which I am not willing to do. I was able to get one (no telling how many scumbags are doing this) thrown off Mastodon with the help of a reader there.

Please tell everyone on X and elsewhere you can reach that this is an impersonator, and I blog only on Goodreads.

A good recent SFWA Writer Beware post tackled the problem more generally --
https://writerbeware.blog/2025/11/14/...

My own ones have been reported to me before --

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...

Please repost these links wherever the matter next arises! Especially the SFWA one, which is very informative.

Ta, L.
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Hello Lois, I'm just starting my umpteenth re-read of the Vorkosigan series, and I wanted to ask you whether the end of Shards of Honour was written later than the rest? Perhaps when you wrote Barrayar, as I thought I understood that there was a gap. Apologies if you've already discussed this at length somewhere. The end of Shards is quite strikingly beautiful to me in its depth of human psychology.
Lois McMaster Bujold
Assuming you are asking about the codicil chapter "Aftermaths", it was written soon after Shards, somewhere around or just before the time of starting The Warrior's Apprentice. (Recall that the first ~ 8 chapters of what later became Barrayar were written back in 1983 before I broke off and started writing Warrior's in 1984.)

I was still trying to break in at this time, so sent the short story around to the then-extant SF magazine markets, along with a few others I was circulating in hope, where it did not sell, but got completely contradictory rejection letters. (A lesson to me it took a while to figure out.) By the time in late 1985 that the 3 finished novels all sold to Baen, it was still kicking around unsold.

I forget what phone conversation I was in with Jim Baen when the discussion came up of what he called his "paperback magazine", Far Frontiers, monthly short story collections packaged as and marketed with Baen's mass market paperback offerings. Anyway, his idea came up of pubbing the story there a month or two before Shards was launched, to introduce this new writer Bujold to his audience. (Jim schemed a lot about how to launch new writers.) I also don't remember if it was his idea or mine to append the story to the novel as an afterword, but anyway, that was when it joined the text, after the manuscript was sold to Baen but before the novel was published.

Anyway, good call; I think it strengthened the thematic weight of the novel ever after, as you experienced.

Ta, L.
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Recent articles have discussed "Extra-Uterine Fetal Incubation" or "Artificial Wombs" and I slid down the rabbit hole of the various possible impacts of those terms and others as compared to "Uterine Replicators". For one, I was struck by how the former might imply superiority over the original in ways the latter does not. What considerations, if any, do you recall making when you chose your term?
Lois McMaster Bujold
As near as I can remember from a thought-stream 42 years ago, I made the term up on the fly for the scene in Shards of Honor in which the tech first appears, and Cordelia is explaining it to Aral (and the reader.) I wanted a term which was not that used in prior SF works -- Huxley's Brave New World most obviously, but there were others, including Zelazny's Lord of Light. (I don't offhand now remember what terms those authors used in their books without looking them up.) I wanted my term for it to have an inherently obvious meaning to the readers, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time teaching new pseudo-vocabulary or neologisms.

I didn't at the time push any particular opinion over which method was "superior" -- a loaded term -- although if one is a human of the female reproductive persuasion, the advantages and disadvantages become more obvious the more one thinks about them, which I did later on. Most immediately in Ethan of Athos, though also touched on in the ensuing Falling Free. And then explored further from time to time throughout the series, all the way up through Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.

Ta, L.
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Over 1,500 answered questions (a few of them mine!) and no search function so far as I can tell ... but I re-read The Hallowed Hunt, and wanted to know if there was more to the erstwhile sorcerer and now petty saint of the Bastard Lewko's story (if I read the novel correctly)? I hope that they both knowingly sacrificed his demon in some grandiloquent act of heroism and sacrifice, instead of usual chaos run amok...TY!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yeah, lack of a search function here is a trial. I've sometimes had luck using just plain old Google, plus enough assorted unique key words. Ferex, if you google "Was Shards of Honor ever a Star Trek fanfic?" it will take one to my posted Goodreads Q&A answer explaining no, not.

Anyway, back to the Five Gods. It was not, alas, grandiloquent heroism that lost Lewko his demon, it was overwork, trying to do too hard a job/jobs of uphill magic too fast until his demon violently rebelled. So, chaos run amok, but also misjudgment, mismanagement (by both Lewko and his seniors) and perhaps a touch of hubris. (Demons are not, generally, into self-sacrifice.)

The hard-learned humility that followed for Lewko probably had something to do with his later ability to channel his god, but I've never worked out the details.

Ta, L.
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Over 1,500 answered questions (a few of them mine!) and no search function so far as I can tell ... but I re-read The Hallowed Hunt, and wanted to know if there was more to the erstwhile sorcerer and now petty saint of the Bastard Lewko's story (if I read the novel correctly)? I hope that they both knowingly sacrificed his demon in some grandiloquent act of heroism and sacrifice, instead of usual chaos run amok...TY!
Lois McMaster Bujold
Yeah, lack of a search function here is a trial. I've sometimes had luck using just plain old Google, plus enough assorted unique key words. Ferex, if you google "Was Shards of Honor ever a Star Trek fanfic?" it will take one to my posted Goodreads Q&A answer explaining no, not.

Anyway, back to the Five Gods. It was not, alas, grandiloquent heroism that lost Lewko his demon, it was overwork, trying to do too hard a job/jobs of uphill magic too fast until his demon violently rebelled. So, chaos run amok, but also misjudgment, mismanagement (by both Lewko and his seniors) and perhaps a touch of hubris. (Demons are not, generally, into self-sacrifice.)

The hard-learned humility that followed for Lewko probably had something to do with his later ability to channel his god, but I've never worked out the details.

Ta, L.
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Wishing everyone a happy Winterfair and Father's Midwinter Day (if I have the name correct) and whatever midwinter celebration there may be in the Wide Green World. I assume that most cultures have some way of marking the longest night and longest day or some time close to this? I have very much enjoyed all three of these worlds.
Lois McMaster Bujold Thank you so much for your kind wishes!

(Actually, winter solstice is just the Father's Day. Father's Midwinter would be halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox, i.e., around Groundhog Day, Feb. 2. Not that the months have to have the same number of days as in our world, nor the days the exact time duration... Pretty close though. But any planet with axial tilt should have seasons, solstices, and equinoxes, which make them a pretty good universal fantasy calendar marker.)

Ta, L.
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